#[also its my first (official) time panelling a comic so!]

[ask-jewels-against-the-sea]

In which Five Pebbles offers Survivor some much needed encouragement.

#five pebbles #rw five pebbles #rw survivor #your therapist five pebbles #lemonade #rw downpour spoilers #downpour spoilers #? #[i originally made this for myself when i was feeling down] #[and it helped me a lot] #[so i hope it can help anyone who might need it too.] #[also its my first (official) time panelling a comic so!] #[hope it looks nice!]

[jccatstudios]

I have been following your soc comic adaptation and it just so good!!! I love how you draw them!

I have just one question: Why did you not include Inej's opening musings about Kaz on the first page? (Kaz Brekker didn't need a reason etc) I actually really like how there is not text on the first two pages, it's really atmospheric and moody so this really is not a criticism, I don't want to insult you. I guess I was just wondering what the thought process behind that was?

Oh, I've been wanting to talk about this for a while! Buckle up, this is gonna be one of my long comic rants. (Also, no offense taken at all! Anyone's welcome to question my artistic choices and I'm always happy to take critique, even though that isn't your intention.)

So, the thing is I actually planned on including that first paragraph into the comic! Here's when I first shared the thumbnails on here. Just for the sake of this post, I'll insert them here too.

The boxes are meant to be where excerpts of that introduction would go. When I was creating the thumbnails, I was thinking about how iconic these lines were and how well they introduce the world and characters. I even finished the pages with the intention to include those lines. This is from my original csp file.

When I lettered it all out, I felt like something wasn't right...? Hard to explain. I wanted silence for the opening and the narration took that away. I then thought about the reader who'd go into this without reading the novel first, wondering if they'd be thinking, Who's this Kaz Brekker guy? Is it this character on the page? It's clearer in the book, but I didn't think it paired well with what I drew. I didn't want any confusion. It's also Inej's chapter, and while Kaz's parts take up most of it, I still wanted it to feel like her POV and her story. We can hold off officially meeting Kaz until page four.

But the main reason I took it out comes down to my philosophy when it comes to comic adaptations. I believe that an adaptation should use the original story in the best way for the secondary medium. A comic adaptation should play to the strength of comics, not the original source material.

Time and time again, I see a lot of comic adaptations of books try to use a book's strength instead of a comic's. When that happens, you get pages upon pages of narration boxes and exposition that could've easily been told in a single panel's image. If you want to read excerpts from the original novel, go do that! They're beautiful and well-crafted and you should be reading the original anyway! If you're making a comic adaptation, make a comic, not an illustrated version of the novel (that's a whole field of its own).

This whole thing really ties well into what I'm doing for Chapter 3. Kaz is such an internal character, his chapters have a lot more exposition that isn't setting description or character actions. I've had to do a lot more of my own writing for this chapter than the last just to turn that exposition into his own voice as an internal monologue. Sometimes, it's just a change from "he" to "I," but there are other times I've had to write new dialogue and find ways to naturally flow between thoughts. If I didn't do the work to adapt the expository text and instead just put in narration boxes of text from the book, there would be a greater disconnect between the reader and Kaz. Third-person limited works great in books and doesn't separate the readers from the story, but in comics, first-person internal dialogue keeps the readers inside the scene better.

If I were to redo Chapter 2, I think I would try to find a way to incorporate the information from the chapter intro better. I think by losing the intro I initially planned to include, I didn't establish certain ideas very well. Ketterdam and Kerch are established later on pages 4 and 5, but I don't think I ever go back and mention The Barrel. Also, the idea that Kaz is deliberate, even if his reputation says otherwise, is important too. I've made sure to fix this kind of issue in Chapter 3 and keep record of what kind of information I'm losing as I adapt it.

#comic rant over! #thanks for the ask I really love talking about this stuff #soc comic adaptation #asks #comics talk

[the-fantabulous-toast]

Lettering sound effects in Shiori Experience

Hi! I’m Toast, the letterer on #dropout’s English translation of Shiori Experience. This series was my first time doing typesetting, and I’ve learned a lot over the two years I’ve been involved in the project. Each new chapter brings new challenges, and as our team has matured we’ve gotten more ambitious. We recently began translating the comic’s sound effects along with the dialogue, a decision which instantly doubled the size of our workload. 

Our most recent release, Chapter 64, was probably the most technically complex chapter we’ve done so far. The sound effects in this chapter were varied and complicated, presenting a number of interesting challenges. Today I thought it would be fun to give y’all a peek behind the curtain, and show the thought process and effort that goes into the adaptation of sound effects in Shiori Experience.

Shiori Experience is a music manga [citation needed], so it isn’t surprising that the sound effects can get pretty complicated. Music manga need to convey not just the sound, but more importantly the impact of a performance, conveying an auditory experience in a totally silent medium. Shiori Experience’s approach to this problem is to make the sound effects semi-diegetic objects. They hang in the air, burst out of crowds, get obscured by foreground objects, and cast shadows on their environment. This is a really cool effect, but also makes converting them from Japanese to English a fucking nightmare.

(Look at the shadows)

Shiori Experience is kind of a nightmare

In some ways, lettering for Shiori Experience isn’t actually that difficult. Sound effects in this series are goddamn everywhere and they’re fucking gigantic, but they’re always straightforward. Much like the art of the series, the sound effects are clean and angular, strong dynamic shapes which are easy to parse even if you can’t read the katakana. For a great example of this, look at this sequence from Chapter 64.

This sequence demonstrates what you can achieve with good lettering. The sound of the band is conveyed perfectly with these visuals. The clear and regular beat of the drums, the dark and energetic bass line, the screaming uncontrollable energy of the electric guitar. We didn’t even bother translating it. We didn’t need to.

But look at the sequence again. In spite of its apparent complexity, there’s only two fonts here, a dynamic block text and an angular brush. Those two fonts represent the vast majority of SFX in Shiori Experience. The rest is just text effects and perspective tricks.

So to convert these sound effects into English, we just have to find equivalent fonts. It took me a while to pin down a set of fonts I was happy with. For the pointy brush font I eventually settled on Jolly Lodger, a brush font with a sort of piratey vibe. I’m still not 100% satisfied with this conversion, it isn’t as pointy as the original, but it’s good enough for now.

And for the big block font I chose Boogaloo. It looks a little thin when it’s on its own like this, but it really bulks up with the right text effects.

Great! We’ve got our fonts! Doing the sound effects should be as simple as erasing the old text and replacing it with the new text, right? Wrong. The nightmare begins.

Different approaches

There are several schools of thought when it comes to lettering manga SFX. One is the "keikkaku means plan" approach. In a translator's note outside the panel, or in plain text near the SFX, describe what the sound is. This is incredibly easy. This is also lame.

(This is from the official release of Dungeon Meshi. I wouldn’t want to redraw this one either, but like, come on guys.)

Another school of thought is style matching. Similar to the translator’s note approach, but rather than plain text, the translation uses similar text effects to the original SFX. This works fine, but it can create a lot of visual clutter if implemented poorly.

(This is from Drifting Dragons. Please read Drifting Dragons.)

The last approach is full replacement. In this approach, the original SFX is (are you ready for this?) fully replaced by the new SFX.

SFX Redrawing

Replacing a sound effect isn’t as simple as just erasing it. We work with tankoban pages, scans of the Japanese volume release. These files are flattened, with the art and text all on one layer as a single image. We can’t just disable the text. In order to remove the original SFX, we have to redraw them.

(for context this is from when I had covid)

Redrawing means recreating the art hidden by the original SFX. This is a complex process, requiring a steady hand, sharp eyes, and  a lot of guesswork. Since we don’t know what precisely is underneath the original SFX, we have to use context to reconstruct it. The goal of any localization is to make the translation invisible to the reader. The same principle holds true in redrawing. The art we add needs to be invisible, meshing seamlessly with the original artwork.

(I made this dude up out of whole cloth. I’m honestly really proud of how he came out.)

#Dropout uses a mix of style matching and full replacement, with the choice between the two being determined by a number of factors. To illustrate that decision-making process, let’s break down the process of redrawing a page of Shiori Experience, specifically the spread across pages 172 and 173 from Chapter 64.

Deciding between Style Match and Full Replacement

This is the original untranslated page, and there’s a lot going on.

In the background of the first panel is the sound of the band, バアアアン, phonetically translated as "BA-A-A-A-N", localized as “BWAAAM”. In the foreground is the cheering of the crowd, ボオワアアア, "BO-O-WA-A-A-A" phonetically, “ROOAAR” localized. Lastly, along the side of panels 3 through 6 is applause, パチ, "PA-CHI", “CLAP”.

At a glance, this page is overwhelming. The cheering sound effect is huge, with custom text effects conveying the energy of the crowd. Worse is the clapping, which overlays multiple panels with dozens of unique partially obscured faces. This looks like a pain in the ass to redraw, but in the end I decided to do a full replacement instead of a simpler style match. With the number and size of the SFX combined with the visual density of the panels, doing a style match would result in a cluttered unreadable mess. Too much of the original artwork would be covered, and there just isn’t enough space. So, full replacement.

The redrawing process

As I’ve gained more experience, it’s been surprising to learn what constitutes a difficult redraw. You’d expect crowd shots to be the hardest, with lots of unique faces and little details, but they actually aren’t that bad IMO. More detail means more context means less guessing. Definitely a lot of work, but not difficult. Meanwhile, something like a gradient or screentone pattern which looks simple is actually a goddamn nightmare to recreate, as we'll see later.

That’s why I started my redraw for this page with the clapping. Again, this looks like it would be really hard, but looks can be deceiving. There’s a lot of clapping, yes, but the text is thin and spaced out. Whiting out the text reveals just how little artwork is actually hidden by the sound effects.

After whiting out the original text, the next step is connecting as many existing lines as I can. I do the panel and bubble borders on a separate layer since they’re simple structural elements. The artwork itself requires a bit more thought. I need to examine the original artwork carefully to avoid connecting lines that shouldn’t be connected. Context can also provide guidance where there are no lines to connect, such as the cheering guy’s hat in the first panel, or the clapping hand in the second panel. Also, when there’s lots of little SFX like this it’s easy to miss a few lines, like the box thing near the bottom of the last panel (don’t worry I catch it later).

The last step is adding in all the inking and screentones, the pattern templates which fill in the “color” to the line work. I have to go through with the clone stamp tool, collect samples from the image, and extend the pattern to fill the blank areas. This is the most annoying step in the process for me, because it requires a level of precision even beyond what’s required for the line work. Humans are pattern-recognition machines. Our brains are really good at catching tiny discrepancies, like when a section of a pattern doesn’t quite line up with the rest of it. My patch job on this panel wasn’t perfect, and you can see where I couldn’t quite line things up in areas like the guy’s checkered shirt in the first panel.

And with that, this redraw is complete! Now it’s time to insert the English translation of the sound effect.

SFX Lettering

The clapping SFX is in that same brush font I pointed out earlier, which we use JollyLodger for. There’s no real perspective things or text effects here, so mimicking the original isn’t difficult. Here’s the before and after.

This approach of fully redrawing the old SFX before inserting the new SFX only works in situations like this, where the text is small and there’s enough detail to reconstruct the image with a high level of confidence. As an SFX gets larger, like the roar of a crowd, the harder it gets to fully replace. This calls for a different approach.

Because of the size and complexity of this sound effect, I decided to do the lettering first. This is the block font I identified earlier, which is replaced by Boogaloo. I do some basic manipulation right away, applying a black outline and distorting the text to create the same perspective effect as the original. The SFX in this series are subtly three-dimensional, and the replacement text needs to be in the same orientation to sell the effect.

I’m also being careful with my placement here, doing my best to align the new text with the old. This will be important later.

Next we need to recreate the distortion effect. Photoshop has functionality to mimic this kind of effect, but I opted to do it manually. Osada (the mangaka) does all these layouts, SFX and all, on paper. The original effect was hand drawn, so the replacement effect is hand drawn.

The lettering for this effect is now complete, and we can begin the redraw process. Since we already have the letters in place, we have the advantage of knowing exactly where a redraw is needed, turning what would otherwise have been an enormous replacement into a minor patch job. From here, it’s the same process as the clapping SFX: Raw, Blank, Line, Fill.

Minor sidebar: translating Japanese sound effects presents an interesting and incredibly niche problem. The katakana symbol オ is translated phonetically as “o”. The problem with that is that when you’re replacing a オ with an O in a sound effect, the hole of the O is positions right on the center of the オ. This makes オ really annoying to redraw. Every O turns into a little window of totally new art, with barely any reference points to draw from. It violates the principle of invisibility, but there’s really no way around it. You can see I got a little lazy here, and clonestamped a different section of the crowd into the hole. As long as I don’t draw attention to it nobody will notice. I hope.

Sidebar over. Just for fun, here’s the before and after for the whole page.

Closing thoughts

So that’s what it takes to do the sound effects for one page of Shiori Experience. This page alone took me multiple days to complete, and it wasn’t even the most complicated page in this chapter. It isn’t why our releases take so long (that can be laid at the feet of staffing and scheduling issues), but hopefully I’ve given you a sense of how much work goes into each new chapter.

This chapter would have taken even longer without the help of Adi and Bangistus, who pitched in on a lot of the smaller SFX. Up until now the lettering of this series has been a solo show, Toast all the way down. Now that Adi and Bang are on the team I’m still keeping most of the big pages for myself, but being able to toss to the others when I get overwhelmed is going to be invaluable. Hopefully I can rely on them in the future as well, there’s some big things coming down the pipe

This series is a labor of love. Sometimes frustrating, often exhausting, but always worth it. I owe this series a lot, and I hope it shows in the work I put into it. I think it would be fun to do more behind the scenes process content like this, so maybe keep an eye out for that in the future.

Lastly, just as a status update, #dropout is not dropping Shiori Experience.  We have a temporary translator who’s helping us put together Chapter 65, which will be coming out Eventually™. Not as long as last time, but like always don’t hold your breath. We’re not sure what will happen after 65 drops. We’re still desperately hiring for a main translator, seriously if you know anybody please hit me up.

That’s all from me. Take care y’all.

#shiori experience #scanlation #lettering #typesetting #redrawing #manga #toastpoasting

[genericpuff]

lmao so RS just confirmed she STILL does not, in fact, have a buffer.

FAST PASS SPOILERS AHEAD

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To kick this off, let's be real, 2 weeks is NOT enough time to build up a reasonable buffer.

When she took that 2 week break after the wedding episode went up, I knew 1 of 2 things was going to happen:

She was going to piss away the entire break on social media not getting anything done

Even if she DID get anything done and a reasonable buffer of more than 3-5 episodes built up, the episodes likely wouldn't be very high quality as you can't turn out shitloads of decent quality panels like that in just 2 weeks.

I think Rachel really just needs to acknowledge and take ownership of the fact that she is not good at managing herself, her time, or her team. When she started LO in the Originals section, she even admitted to not having a very strong buffer.

Now yes, in her defense, she hadn't fully transitioned to drawing LO full time when she started, but even still, she seems to treat her FastPass episodes as her buffer rather than creating an actual buffer.

A buffer is not "well I still have 3 episodes locked to the general public" or "I have the next couple episodes sketched up".

A proper buffer is "I have the next several episodes finished and exported and ready for their respective release dates." This ensures that they aren't racing to meet deadlines during the release period after pre-production (which is a surefire way to screw yourself over or write yourself into a corner) and that if anything happens in real life that prevents them from working on future episodes, they can still put out new episodes because they have a cushion of episodes still waiting to be released. Webtoons typically recommends its creators have anywhere from 9-15 episodes of buffer ready by the end of the pre-production phase. That usually means 3 free episodes, 3 FastPass episodes, and at minimum, 9 more episodes sitting on the backend, adding up to a minimum of 15 episodes. It sounds like a lot, but when many WT series run for 40+ episodes per season, 15 is a small number. Especially for a comic like LO which had 90 episodes in its S2 run and 116 in its first season. S3 of LO is already 37 episodes in.

She's also basically admitted to just writing as she goes in the past because most people working on their webtoons in productions like these have at least a decent skeleton of a story going on that they don't have to write as they draw. Writer's block doesn't happen in webcomics unless you're writing as you're going, same as how it doesn't typically happen in animated movies because you should already have a basis to work off of before you start the brunt of the visual work that needs a narrative structure to exist.

Now, all that aside, the reason I'm bringing this up again (as I've talked about her buffer range before) is because I've once again been proven that Rachel doesn't have a shred of a real buffer.

And the smoking gun this time was the horse.

This stupid fucking horse.

Now, besides the fact that we're a little sus this is meant to be an in-comic jab at all the criticism of LO pointing out how Persephone always looks like an MLP character-

-but that pony toy drawing didn't make its first appearance in Episode 241, it made its first appearance on Instagram. Not as a preview for episode 241 or as an official LO drawing, in her own words, 'just a pony'.

As always, this is still just an estimation based on what goes out in LO and what Rachel posts to her IG/Twitter, but this pretty much tells me her buffer is STILL only 1-2 weeks ahead of time, because that pony drawing time lapse was posted two weeks ago. When we checked the actual timestamp of the post the day the episode it showed up in went up (Episode 241) it was ten days old.

Not to mention, the timestamps on those reddit posts? A month old. Granted, we had been making MLP jokes in the ULO/antiLO community prior to that, but the fact that this "my pretty pony" gimmick came out so soon after someone did literal art of Persephone crossed over with MLP, it really just furthers the suspicion (in addition to shitloads of other instances) that Rachel is snooping in on these crit communities to try and "clap back" at them through her comic. Which is something she'd only be able to do with a limited buffer anyways as it allows her to change things on the fly in response to criticism or whatever hurt her feelings that week.

That said, I won't be certain of this 1-2 week buffer estimation until we see when cowboy hat Hades shows up.

I'm calling it now - it will be showing up in this week's episode which goes up April 22nd.

Place your bets, folks.

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #antiloreolympus #essay post #unpopularLO #unpopularloreolympus

[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!

#kingdom of wishes #wish reimagined #wish rewrite #wish 2023 #disney wish #artists on tumblr #asha wish #starboy #starsha #the kingdom of wishes desings #the kingdom of wishes au comic #the kingdom of wishes au #behind the papers? #behind the scenes #aesthetic #scketchbook #scketchs #please write tags for me when reblogging #I am feeling lazy

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 3

Propaganda Under Cut

Stephanie Brown

Literally my best friend ever!!! Every time she shows up in a comic I point at her and smile!!! She’s the vigilante known as spoiler & batgirl & was a robin before getting fridged because of editorial mandate and misogyny she deserves so much better @_@. The m/m that some people hate her for is timkon; like they ARE very gay but people are genuinely insane about hating her instead of also realizing that she too is gay (insane amount of subtext w her bff cass). Basically she was Tim’s girlfriend for a long time on and off. People will literally call her abusive for no reason they’ll be like oh but she didn’t apologize for starting a gang war accidentally and faced no consequences for it :/ as if she wasn’t literally KILLED OFF BRUTALLY. And although hate is rarer for her nowadays from what I’ve seen she’s also a victim of Background Lesbian Syndrome. And also a victim of Woman Not Allowed To Have Ocmplex Feelings in the source material itself (tim is canonically bi now yay but like steph wasn’t allowed to have any complicated feelings at all at her on again off again ex breaking up with her for good???). Anyways she’s the light of my life.

she’s the light of my life my baby girl my everything. she canonically dated tim drake, but people love to ship tim with his male friend kon or his male brothers (🤢🤮) and so they constantly sideline her, making her the quirky wingwoman or sometimes even villainizing her by trying to claim she was abusive to tim. i don’t know why so many people hate her my girl will literally just be standing there and people will hate on her.

Stephanie was first introduced in the 1994 Robin series as a side love interest for Robin, but when she turned out to be really popular she became the main love interest. Because of this, she was fully fleshed out as a vigilante calling herself Spoiler to try and take down her villainous father, the Cluemaster. She later grew a lot closer to other cast members, such as Batgirl and Oracle, to get herself a firmly established place among the bats. Then, she dies in a gang war after taking up the Robin mantle. Eventually, in 2009, she was brought back from the dead and took on the Batgirl mantle. Her and Robin get back together sometime around ~2010 and they are solidly together until 2021. Then, Robin breaks up with her off panel for zero reason in canon, only to date some really boring guy named Bernard. By fanon, she's often demonized and turned into an abuser to make either this ship, or a lot of other mlm ships happen. Either that or things are mysteriously set in the time she's dead despite characters who were not yet introduced until she returned appearing. strange.

Amy Rose

WAUGH okay so basically like everyone villainizes her when shipping Sonic with any other character (and 99% of the time its Amy being villainized against a m/m ship ://) but yeah Amy canonically has a "crush" on Sonic and stuff (which is weird in its self cuz age gaps and things but creators smh) and anyways any time people write Sonic in a relationship with other characters they always make her super upset and mad that Sonic isn't dating her etc etc and basically make her a pouting 12 year old because her super hero crush doesn't date her instead of writing her as a supportive best friend to sonic WHICH SHE SHOULD BE WRITTEN AS !!!! and uh yeah if you couldn't tell this makes me so upset because amy is such a good character people should stop ruining her

Even outside of yaoi, she is the most hated character in the FRANCHISE. THERE ARE ENTIRE WEBSITES DEDICATED TO HATING ON HER. HER MERE EXISTANCE CREATES SHIP WARS. IT IS HELL. EVEN THE OFFICIAL TWITTER ACCOUNT AND THE ARCHIE COMICS HATED ON HER IN THE PAST.

Not only is she a incredibly serious victim of yaoi, she is bashed in every fic where Sonic is paired with someone other than her. And when she is paired with someone other that Sonic, Sonic is bashed. And when she is paired with Sonic, other characters commonly paired with Sonic are bashed. It is a chain reaction of madness. Even outside of shipping, she is one of the most hated characters in the fandom. She was flanderized to ridiculous amounts. Even the official Sonic twitter used to mock her. Even official gaming news sites mock her, with a particularly horrible case being when TheGamer outright said Sonic being paired with TAILS is better than Sonic being paired with Amy. The amount of hate this character has attracted is incredibly large. There are entire websites dedicated to hating her.

#round 3 #poll #stephanie brown #dc #dc comics #dc universe #amy rose #sonic the hedgehog #sonic

[ccrisntok]

"hey guys I'm working on an 'Acevi' comic I might post it soon" they say, knowing damn good and well they were working on a Whace comic at same time and will finish it faster.

... so guys guess what (cut bc I talk a ton )

This isn't super serious! Or in character! About half way through I kinda went "Oh wait this is Whace. This is inherently goofy" and made it goofy. This takes place somewhere before the killing game, but Ace has his cooler hair bc I said so.

Anyway without further delay: here you go

woa look at all those drawings (some done months ago). This looks like a M.A.P (multi animator project not the illegal kind) with how much my artstyle shifts around

Bouns sketch panels I thought were funny

Sadly didn't keep the bite :// also it was all way more high energy in the sketch phase. "why do you live me" and "you're weird but in a funny" are iconic

Also the 1st (and only good) background on it's own bc I found it nice looking

Idk why they have lockers in college.

Was thinking about waiting to release this bc I felt kinda shitty for teasing the. Kinda Acevi thing first. But whatever, I worked (kinda) hard, and I want people to see it.

The background audio is this piano cover of Creep by Radio Head

I elect to make Creep the official Whace song bc its so them fr. /... hj

#drdt #drdt fanart #ace markey #danganronpa despair time #whit young #whace #the best drdt ship fr!11!1! #i do genuinely believe that i cant help it #also like since i forgot to draw Charles walking away i guess he just hid in his locker ajd was listening the whole time #god this took so much work #ill work on the acevi thing. soon. its basically done already #FUCK I JUST CAUGHT A SPELLING MISTAKE #dies

[fanonical]

I feel this is a good time to disclose that I don’t know what homestuck is so that you can induct me and also talk about it at length so that others may be similarly inducted.

Thank you in advance/you’re welcome xox

hahaha i actually do this a lot, i should probably find one of my “how to read/understand Homestuck” posts and bring it back to reblog every time somebody asks about it

Homestuck is an interactive webcomic & experimental hypertext, told mostly through epistolary chatlogs. In short, this means that Homestuck is told mostly through images and text (like most comics) but that sometimes — even often — the panels are have sound effects, music, playable sequences etc. facilitated through Shockwave Flash (the same now-retired software that used to let you play browser games during class if you’re the same generation as me :P). Also, as mentioned, most of the dialogue is delivered through chat logs between internet friends, and they’re incredibly faithfully written — Homestuck is the comic for internet friends to read together.

I just spent a long time talking about what Homestuck IS but not what it’s about — this is because as a whopping 8,000-page epic told using over a million words Homestuck is actually about a lot of things and its genre, setting, and even main characters shift quite drastically throughout the comic. Also, because Homestuck is a meta-narrative, its story is often about itself, which gets a little tricky to understand & explain; one of the big conflicts of Homestuck is the concept of retaining fictional relevancy (some characters even know when they are and aren’t the main character, and it vexes them, for example).

Overall, the first “main plot” you’re going to contend with is the adventure of four teenaged internet friends playing a special videogame together and discovering their destinies to embark on a quest to save all of reality.

TIPS:

1. Don’t let the 8,000 pages, 1 million words thing get to you. It breezes by a lot faster than you’d think when you get into it. Plus, single-panel-pages & long playwright style dialogs inflate how big it looks a lot; a lot those one million words are probably the narrative stating a character’s name to show they’re talking.

2. Read the Unofficial Homestuck Collection. There is an official Homestuck website; as of February 2024 it’s still considered pretty broken & the Unofficial Collection is considered unbeatable. It’s even author approved.

3. A lot of people give up because they don’t “get it” and they think they’re missing something. They aren’t, it’s just a little obtuse and doesn’t explain everything in a clear way intentionally sometimes. The comic will trick you, lie to you, tell you things intentionally out of order, make up meta bullshit a joke, intentionally draw stuff badly, etc etc. It’s a trial through fire. You can overcome it, and if you do, Homestuck is for you & it has a bounty of creative spoils for you.

4. People also give up assuming it isn’t queer because characters don’t immediately say “oh wow im gay” in the first thirty seconds. Well, these characters are realistically portrayed teenagers. You’re gonna have to wait, and that’s what makes it so good.

Good luck. You’re gonna need it.

#how to read homestuck

[maggie0li]

Antithesis Six - Prologue.

This is actually a pretty old comic I started doing, but I decided to revamp it. Here is Chapter 0 of the new one! Now, Tumblr tends to ruin comics' quality so I've split it up into panels, but if you want to read it in page format you can view it on deviantart. This is also the big reason why I haven't been posting art recently :'D

This comic was based off of initial concepts of Season 9's premiere, hence the idea of the "Elements of Disharmony", which were originally going to be a major part in Season 9... this was scrapped.(Along with many other ideas, such as the "Alicorn Homeland" of fanon becoming official canon, and Celestia & Luna retiring there, and other stuff too. It's actually an interesting read, and you can read about it yourself by looking through the Season 9 leaks)

Antithesis Six was about taking elements from these initial ideas and working it into an entirely new story. It was also because I hated how they ruined King Sombra (that was my main motivation. let me tell you, nothing ruined the King Sombra fandom like Season 9). Personally, I have never liked the idea of the 'Elements of Disharmony', but Antithesis Six is more than what I personally wanted, it was about giving the series a proper ending befitting its message in a way that would be more satisfactory for fans. And salvaging King Sombra. Mostly that.

Thank you for reading! Chapter 1 is about ~60% finished, and I'll be releasing it in two parts. Let me know how you guys feel about this so far, i'd love to get your feedback + questions.

The prologue scene actually wasn't in my first edition of antithesis six but i felt that zecora and luna are both pretty overlooked in canon so decided they would a) be the best characters in terms of context in this scene and b) get a good opportunity to shine here. I dont think we ever got to see these two interact at all in canon but i felt like they would probably have some connection. so boom! Zecora Luna best friends!! if i have time later maybe i can explore this relationship more. or in a future comic???

(btw please compliment me on that tree illustration in the panel where luna sighs. i Literally Copied it from a screenshot in the show but it took me ages please Enjoy It)

#myart #maggie0li #antithesis six #mlp #mlp fanart #mlp comic #mlp fan comic #mlp fan art #mlp fim #mlp g4 #mlp gen 4 #princess celestia #princess luna #celestia #luna #zecora #my little pony #mlp art

[thewisemankey]

Completing the Path to the Yellow Dragon: A Report on RTX Austin 2023

What's got the voice cast of Team RWBY acting up in a tizzy? Find out the answer and more under the cut!

Preface:

So anyone who knows me, knows that I'm heavily into RWBY by Rooster Teeth. And as such I have an emotional attachment to the show and its' characters, especially Yang Xiao Long. So much so that Volume 3 definitely affected my emotional and mental health when Yang lost her arm to the bull bastard. If you can recall how I tried to cope with that.

But with that particular chapter long behind us all, there came a point where I made it a personal goal to meet the main cast of RWBY, whether individually or one at a time. An opportunity arose when Tampa Bay Comic-Con announced Barbara Dunkelman was going to be in town that year for it. All things considered, she's the one I wanted to meet the most. UNFORTUNATELY that year happened to be 2020. And you know when happened then. So it didn't happen for all the obvious reasons.

The following year, I made another attempt to meet all four of them when Florida Supercon announced them as guests in Miami. Which worked out on certain fronts since both my dad and my uncle live there. But once I had already purchased my ticket, they all ended up pulling out. And there was no refunds. So I basically wasted money and begrudgingly attended the con, knowing all I could do was basically just bumblescrewing around. Especially considering they didn't announce any GOOD replacements for them. At this rate, all I could settle for were video chats with Barb, (And at one point Barb AND Arryn) so that they would at least know my name and my face.

Another year passed to 2022, and to my utter disappointment, neither TBCC nor Florida Supercon ever bothered to make good and attempt to bring any of them back. So with my trust gone from local cons, it was then that I decided what needed to be done. After taking care of other business with Wrestlecon in Dallas, I would instead go directly to them at RTX the next year knowing they're consummate guests who can't pull out from there since they all practically LIVE and work there with Rooster Teeth. Because it became more important to me than ever to meet them all, especially Barbara, to make myself feel spiritually whole.

And so began my Path to the Yellow Dragon.

Day 1: Discounts at Diner Bar and The Grey Market? HAHA, BET.

Waking up to the sound of "Dangerous Dreams" by LeBrock, I made the early morning flight to Austin with more baggage than I had ever packed before and a new backpack to carry lots of necessities with me.

Arriving at the Fairmont hotel, I unpacked and settled in as quickly as possible. I was surprised to find I had my own bathrobe! So I decided to get my Damien Sandow on:

After taking time to relax, I made my way to the Austin Convention Center for what was dubbed "First Night." Which was essentially their "Welcome to RTX" panel, which included the RTX 2023 theme song! (Said song ended up being "Higher" by Creed except with more Rooster Teeth centered lyrics, lol.)

After that, it was the various talent of Rooster Teeth, including Geoff Ramsey and Gus Sorola giving us the lowdown on the weekend events, not to mention making announcements for stuff like new episodes of Camp Camp and A Simple Walk 2. We were also treated to Face Jam recommending several local eateries for those of us not familiar with the area, as well as constantly reminding us of getting discounts from Diner Bar and The Grey Market with our RTX badges. While I didn't partake in those place, I DID scope out Via 313 pizza as a means of securing a dinner for the weekend, so good on them for telling us about THAT place.

Not much else after that, so I packed it in, grabbed some room service for dinner, played a bit of Tears of the Kingdom before calling it a night.

Day 2: A Perfect 10 out of 9

With the OFFICIAL first day upon me, I made it a personal mission to make sure my attire was repping Team RWBY throughout the weekend. So combined with my camos, it came out something like this:

There was definitely more of certain colors than the others, but let's be honest, with how many people were out there wearing similar colors after Volume 9, would it matter? XD

Regardless, since I had a Platinum badge, I was allowed one-hour early access to their main hall! And they had PLENTY to do inside of it! Including...

Achievement Hunter Golf and other games of skill!

The F*ck Face Exhibit!

The Face Jam Rat & Grackle Pub! (My finger slipped in the shot there, whoops.)

And then there was the 20 Years of Rooster Teeth Museum!

T'was full of different props and signed stuff. Some that were off limits, and others you could interact with. Like sitting on the Always Open Couch, or even pose with a replica of the Crescent Rose! Since that was the case:

I took the opportunity to practice Kozuki Oden Two-Sword style! Although Crescent Rose is definitely a LOT heavier than it looks.

Then there was the All Good No Worries Park!

Just a simple place to sit back, relax, play a few yard games, and even scribble messages on the completely free spaced walls that was in the center. Having THAT kinda freedom, I decided to Gol D. Roger it up:

Suffice to say, there was PLENTY of fun to be had. But aside from awaiting for the Shop to open up, (which I couldn't immediately get because access wasn't allowed until Noon for those who didn't have the Ultra Badge) there was a VERY unique activity to do at the RT Animation Fan Zone...

The chance to speak with Ruby Rose herself! In VTuber form, Ruby appeared before us all for a "fireside chat" following her latest adventures. These happened in short sessions throughout the day, so I managed to attend two of them during the weekend. Here's some tidbits that happened while I was there.

-Despite how she acted towards them in Volume 9, Ruby IS very happy that Blake and Yang got together and very excitedly approves of their new relationship. She noted that it was very unlike Yang to dance around her feelings, so she was glad it all paid off in the end for them both. Good thing I asked THAT question!

-When asked what kind of Pokémon trainer she would be, she stated she'd have a mix of Grass and Flying-type Pokemon. And throw in a Pikachu.

-SOMEONE had the gall to ask if she had any loves in her life, (which got quite the reaction from the crowd, including myself who pointed my bat at that person and said "YOU WATCH YOUR BOUNDARIES, MISTER!") and her answer was she has only ONE love: Crescent Rose. XD

-On the subject of favorite food besides cookies, she said that she's always wanted to try pizza. Apparently it DOESN'T exist in Remnant which is a damn crying shame. Hopefully someone gets around to inventing it once Salem's permanently out of the picture...

-If she could swap her semblance with anyone else, she would switch with Yang, due to her being a little clumsy and running into things. So she would like to get a little stronger when THAT happens.

-While she's more familiar with DC Superheroes, someone asked who she likes from the Marvel side of things. To the delight of many of us, she said she'd like to meet Miles Morales since he wears red and black like her.

-Another person asked about if Zwei has any family, and she said he did come from a large litter. When things settle down for Remnant at large, she would like to find his family. (They'd probably have to go to space to find his big brother, lol.)

-Since I'm such a huge One Piece dork, I asked what kind of Devil Fruit she would like to eat. Apparently there's a similar story in Remnant called "Single Bit," and she ultimately chose the Gum-Gum Fruit. (Wonder if she knows about the truth behind THAT one...)

And in what was a surprise to us all, Neath Oum himself made an appearance! He asked a simple question how she felt coming back to Remnant. I took the opportunity to shake his hand, just as a sign of goodwill to him and his family.

Soon after that, it was time for the official RWBY panel!

We basically got news about merch, the V9 Soundtrack and home video release dates, thoughts and reactions about the recent season, and even got treated to a sneak peek at Volume 10! (Won't spoil it here, but someone did record and paste to YouTube, so have it that if you really wanna see it.)

Nicest part about this panel was all the free stuff they literally tossed out to the crowd before it started! I managed to snag some new swag in the process:

Having done all that, I packed it all in to eat, sleep, and get ready for the most important day of my life so far...

Day 3: The Good, The Elite, and The Bumbleby

After grabbing breakfast at a nearby iHop, I ventured once more to the convention center. After more random things, I first showed up for the life RWBY Grimm Campaign session, with Lindsay Jones guest playing as "Taco Cat!"

The mission was to find a hitman known as "The Bengal" in a nightclub. In true to life fashion, there were great rolls, and more then several mistakes and jokes being made. XD I clearly missed out on a lot with their previous experiences.

After that came the Death Battle panel!

This had it's share of crazy AI-generated Death Battle mad libs, a big Q&A session, and a preview of the oncoming fight between Darth Vader and Obito Uchiha. I took the opportunity to give a shout-out for having my friend @akumath on their team, and AGAIN reassuring them that they were right about Yang vs. Tifa, before asking if they'd do a Death Battle based off their DBX episodes. Since some of the results of those left me a little more than disappointed. But because I got chosen to ask a question, I was given a free Death Battle shirt!

Having done all that, the time finally came to achieve my ultimate goal for the weekend and personally meet the cast of RWBY. Definitely took a bit of patience on my part, as the line was understandably long, not to mention we were allowed only ONE item to have signed because they had to stick to a schedule. But eventually the time came for my turn to step before Lindsay, Kara, Arryn, and Barb. So I first gave them a proper greeting:

With whatever time I had to speak to all of them at once, I made sure to tell them all how much the show and their characters have meant to me over the years and are still special to me today. It wasn't easy, I got a little emotional doing so, making sure not to completely lose my composure in the process.

Having said as much as I could while they signed my poster, I made sure to inform them all about some gifts I had for them. Unfortunately I couldn't pass them off personally, but I made sure they all knew they were getting art prints of RWBY pics I commissioned previously. However, I had something SPECIAL in mind for Arryn specifically...

YOU CAN STOP SCROLLING NOW IF YOU SKIPPED EVERYTHING ELSE. XD

To explain, as someone who had been crushing on Yang ever since the day the Yellow trailer debuted, I wanted to symbolically and spiritually concede defeat in that Blake was always meant for Yang and not me. (Or my RWBY OC, rather.) And while technically I could hire people to write fics and draw pics of me getting down and dirty with them both, realistically I had to do the right thing for myself so I could wake up with a clear conscience going forward so that they know I fully support Bumbleby being canon.

That being said, I gifted Arryn with a special item that I dubbed "The Beekeper." And clearly it made quite an impression from the looks on their faces there. XD

What exactly IS "The Beekeeper," you ask? Well, I'm going to keep it as a surprise. Want to make it a "you had to be there" thing between me, them, and whatever witnesses happened to catch my special gift. I will however, reveal "The Beekeeper" if Arryn herself happens to show it off on her socials. Maybe it will help if the same pic gets more likes on IG? Until then...IT IS A MYSTERY.

After that, I got my prize shot!

Having done all that, I made sure before departing to have some personal words with Barbara. And left with my complete reward:

Having cleared another dream in my life, I retired for the night before flying back home.

Epilogue:

So here we are. Me having achieved another personal dream of mine, despite how many times I had to deal with the brick walls that were put up in front of me. And thanks to the shirt I ordered from the RT Store ahead of time combined with some purchases I made at the con, I even have a nice little Bumbleby collection going on:

I don't want to sound TOO stereotypical for how I want to put a bow on this whole thing...but I might as well wing it as best I can:

If you want something bad, as 3 Live Kru once said: Do the damn thang. No matter how long it takes and what you gotta spend to get it, the payoff will ALWAYS be worth it in the end. And once you've done that, move onto the next goal with all the time you have in the world. You never know when it'll be your last.

This is Gregory Prytyka Jr. saying: Goodnight from the sunshine state.

#Instagram #rooster teeth #roosterteeth #rooster teeth expo #rooster teeth expo 2023 #rtx #rtx 2023 #rtx austin #rtx austin 2023 #rwby #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #lindsay jones #kara eberle #arryn zech #barbara dunkelman #austin #austin texas #youtube #twitter #tumblr #neath oum #death battle #rwby the grimm campaign #bumbleby #the beekeeper #bumblebee #all good no worries

[nualaofthefaerie]

Who am I, and why I'll always show where Nuala is mentioned?

So hello guys.

I came to the realization that a lot of people on Tumblr do not know me, and I came kind of suddenly to you guys. So, allow me to tell you who I am and why I hope to become a big part of your "Sandman" experience. I will attach some pictures for references 🩷🪷

My name is Li. My main platform is Twitter. Most of my friends are there too. I hope I can make a lot of mutuals here, too. I came across "The Sandman" one year ago. Now, the Sandman is a wonderful piece of media for people to explore a plethora of dynamics they enjoy. For me, it was a bit of an adjustment.

Before reading the comic, I tried to stan Dreamling. However, for me personally, I very rarely enjoy dynamics with no women in them. That is, of course, me personally. I am not the one who should tell people what they should enjoy. Bi/Pan WLM and WLW, those are dynamics I truly enjoy. However, at the time, I was trying to fit in with what was popular. Truly, it didn't make me very happy because I just don't see it the way Dreamling shippers see it.

So I tried changing my angle. I tried to get into Calliope and Morpheus (I apologise, I do not know if they have their own little ship name). This one fitter me a bit better. However, I have personal issues with the concept of divorce, and I could never quite brush aside the fact that at the end... they were divorced. I even made a Calliope cosplay at the time and met Tom (loveliest person on Earth).

(I envisioned this ballerina Calliope cosplay, and for the most part, I made it work. This was my VERY first attempt at anything.)

He kind of convinced me to just read through the comics. And I did. And it all really fell into place. And Nuala of the Faerie became my spark. I want to make it clear that I love Nuala so much more and so BEYOND Sandflower. She is just so exceptional, so complex. I became SO excited to explore what the Internet could offer on her only to get...nothing. Absolutely nothing. Whatever little official art there was (three-five drawings and it was usually not even Nuala centered, she was just there) and two three pen drawings on DivienArt made in 2010.

Now, one thing about me is that I am persistent as all hell. And it is completely out of line that Thessaly is a "main character," but Nuala isn't. So, in January, I had a very "If no one is going to do it, I will" moment. I began talking about her every day. Analysing, sharing panels, commissioning artists (uni student making commissions, I was kinda of crazy for that one. I made one commission once and then had 20 bucks left for the week to buy food) and every minute since January until today, I do it all for her. Because she deserves to be recognized. Nuala is no less than Lucien/ne or the Corinthian. I have an ask sitting in my inbox that I simply don't know how to answer:

"Why do you think "x" is more popular than Nuala?"

I do not know, to be honest. Frankly, I also try not to care. Because my love for Nuala is not based on bringing other characters of the Sandman down. I do this to uplift her to a status where one day, I won't be the only person on the Nuala tag (I was SO happy the other day when like five new people had made art, SO happy) and not the only one on the Sandflower tag (that is ONLY me for now). And until then, I will be the only one. It's okay. And when I no longer have to be, I will sit back and enjoy the fruits of my hard work.

This may appear very self-centered to those who do not know me, but those who do will tell you I work day and night for her. I have a 70k Sandflower fic, 50k of which is only its first arc, just sitting in my google Docs. I have sketches upon sketches. I talk with artists about more commissions and how to make it so she gets a new outreach. I have conversations and try to introduce her to as many people as possible until they notice her and care for her at least a fraction of how much I do. She inspired me to try sewing and really get to cosplay a SOLID version of her (still working on that).

(I sewed most of the outfit and and it was my second attempt to do anything from scratch. I'll get better at it 🪷🌿🩷)

I like to think she would love it. She only ever longed to be loved. And I love my girl.

So much. We help each other every day. We exist together. And when her actress joins our little triangle, we will make the perfect fairy. The perfect personification of womanhood the way I see it.

My Nuala (Lala, Lali, Lalita, flower, the pearl, sun, if I missed any of my moots nicknames for her, hit me up).

So that's it, dear Tumblr. I am afraid you won't be able to mention Nuala of the Faerie without me because somewhere in May, we started co-existing.

And we are not going anywhere.

Love,

Li and Nuala 🪷🌿🩷

#A little intro meta from me #the sandman #nuala #nuala of the faerie #nuala the sandman #the sandman netflix #the sandman comics #tom sturridge #morpheus #dream of the endless #cosplay #sandman meta #introductory post #admin intro

[majorproblems77]

Hi! Its time for a Recalled update! :D

Ive been following this comic for a while and i really enjoy the concept for it, I highly recommend you go and check it out over at @recalled11.

It's an interesting take on the links meet idea and i love the art style and the character designs.

Now, this is a rambly post, no I'm not sorry. Please sit with me, grab some popcorn and some hot chocolate or a hot drink of choice. Prepare to sit for like 30 minutes :D

Also prepare for blorbo hype cause he's here too :D

Lets get started!

All panels belong to @recalled11 thanks for the permission! :D

Alright here we go!!!

First off, it must must be said.

These backgrounds are incredible. like, oh yes oh hell yeah *chefs kiss* I love them.

So at first i was a little confused about the glowing eye, i was looking back at the other pages and back to here and thinking about if it's just a Wild thing. Which would make sense right?

Then they throw this curve ball

MAIN QUEST EYE GLOW, IS HE THE MAIN CHARACTER? DO THEY ALL HAVE THE GLOW EYEBALL OF QUEST TRACKING?

I DONT KNOW YET BUT I'LL FIND OUT.

Man's like, bionic? eye is doing work for us and I'm here for it. the blue glow as well, yes. Just yes.

Also with this panel. We know each of the arrows while a Link is holding it points to a Link. The same goes for Zelda.

And i've been brainstorming who is who.

So, If I've got this right, based off what i could figure out in panels where the compass appears.

Mainly this one

From directionless 2

White (Blue white?) - Wild

Green - Time

Blue - Captain

And now

Yellow - Sky

Let me know if you think it's different! :D

Moving on!

The detail in this is making me so excited, I'm wondering what it means when an arrow acts like this. Is it travelling towards the compass? It is exclusive to just Sky's point? Little thunderbolts spark from it.

Maybe im reading too far into this but the others dont do this, so Im definitely intrigued by this!

I love a full-body shot of anyone, and I love how Wild looks! The little poncho and the details with the scaring!

Now...

BIRB BIRB BIRB

MY BELOVED LOFTWINGS :DDDDDDD

Now I've not found any official names for the loftwings yet, I personally use Crimson and Luna. And will differ to these unless told otherwise. But if there are official names please please tell me! :D

Also is this the camera attachment? A zoom feature? I figure we are gonna see more of wilds ability as we go through but I'm thoroughly enjoying finding out what he can do!

This is the correct reaction when you see a GIANT BIRD flying at you at speed. The people of Wild's world have been through so much at this point the assumption of another monster first its absolutely fair.

HIM

THE BIRB

NDKJSAGNJKFDLSBGKJ;DAFD

When I tell you I had happy clappy hands at this panel I mean my phone fell to the floor with more than a thud.

There's a lot to unpack here, first the reigns with that little gold detailing from the clasp. The saddle? Is it a saddle for loftwings? The leather straps around Link's loftwings.

And Sky's design!

If you know me you know that SKSW is my fave game and that SS link if my fave in pretty much every AU that i encounter. This one is no exception

I'll go into detail later, when we have the detailed screenshots. But just look at my boy!

Also the goggles were a nice touch! It just makes sense for them to wear them, they fly so damn fast imagine the dust.

Captain is a fight first ask questions later, man is ready to go!

Crimson is out here getting half pages and he deserves every inch of space he gets. Such an extra boy and i love him. The details with the feathers flying from both of them too. I love it. I love them

Loftwings my beloved!

Shout out to Zelda for landing Luna not right in the way of everyone, Sky please. Your scaring the adults. The kids think it's cool and want a ride.

But the detailing on the feathers and the eyes even from this far is just incredible.

Crimson please, your scaring the adults. Im here for just the amount of people in lookout landing who sprung to its defense.

While wild is just up here chilling out, This is a totally normal Tuesday!

this reminds me of my chill cat and it makes me love Zelda's loftwing even more. Just a birb chilling.

And this reminds me of my other cat. Loud noises!

Are loftwings in this universe just giant cats? Two types, Chill and crazy.

The real mvp right here. He is ready to fight the big bird.

From a later panel, we can see that the one at the back here is Captain. This means he not only drew his sword he was straight-up ready to fight by this point. He is fast!

Sky my beloved, god I love his design so much.

Also captain's face, He's seen the green tunic and is like. Well, its another child to add to our collection better put the sword away before he does something.

Yes malon, yes they are! And they are wonderful! :D

Time looks worried, is Time afraid of birds? My understanding of oot is that he and the owl were friends?

My fave panel, the best boy with best birb.

Crimson totally knows this is a comic and breaks the forth wall to smile at the reader as well as the others in lookout landing. I love the details here. I love him so much.

He know's he is stunning and will flaunt it every opportunity he gets

Also Sky and Sun having matching sailcloths? I am in love. I love them both.

I'm gonna mention the feathers now too. I love the details of them having their loftwing feathers in their hair as like a head dress. That's such a cool idea i love it!

These two panels had me laughing I wont lie.

First off, Sun responds to Hylia. That is the face of someone who's heard their name. Second off, Flower is a mood. running out of bed with a sword, questions later style.

The detail on Zelda's loftwing too. Such a pretty creature. So well-behaved.

Also, Zelda(flower) asking captain what's happening and the link responds rather than one of her captains.

I really like captain, He's a chill guy. while Sky is just confused. Really cool of captain to be the one to introduce first, he seems to be the one who will be the main referral when it comes to authority. I assume he will be the one who introduces first for all of them.

Time for me to be excited about their designs.

Skyloftian goggles, I love it. It just makes so much sense.

I love Sun, Her dress, the way she's got an sailcloth wrapped around her shoulders like that, the way she's got loftwing feathers not only behind her ears but at the end of her longest braid too. I'm very excited to see more with her.

And Sky! where do i start without going on a twenty minute rampage about him. The way he's got his sailcloth around one shoulder like that. I assume to make it easier to use if he ever needs to use it to land. The loftwing feather hanging off his belt. (Which I notice Zelda doesn't have. Is this just a him thing?)

I can't get over the headdress with the loft wing feathers. Is that a skyloftian thing? Is it ceremonial? Is it because they wanted matching headgear?

I want to know more about Skyloftians in this universe.

Also totally not Sky being an absolute cinnamon roll. Beloved. I love him.

Time and Malon are an absolute mood. time just existing in a state of confusion. And Malon being excited about loftwings. Me too malon, Me too! Let Malon ride one of the loft wings as soon as possible.

Captain behaving like a dad already. Gives me 'Where is the wild child' vibes. Which is funny, cause Wild is older than him.

Oh and I will mention the scars on Sky's face, I love the scars that they all have. It's all so detailed. Sky's lightning, Captain's burns. And the two cuts on his face.

The fact that this is an expression at all, let alone one that the rest of them are not going to understand cause you know, No remlits on the surface. Poor cinnamon roll man is confused.

Again chill dude with all the friends, i love Captain so much. He's just here to help you out.

Oh man, I enjoyed this update, this was good. I love Sky he is wonderful.

Im sure she can and im very excited to see what's next!

thanks for listening to me ramble for so long. I'm gonna get something to eat and you should too.

See you later! :D

#recalled #recalled update #recall directionless pt4 spoilers #recalled wild #recalled cpatain #recalled sky #recalled Time #recalled sun #recalled flower #recalled malon #This took me 3 hourssss #i love it #love this comic #go look at it #please #i beg of you #ramble corner with major #Sky is once again reminding me why he is the best blorbo #:DDDD #recalled spoilers #Comic analysis corner with major #(I found a corner name)

[j-ellyfish]

Hima read a book about the history of Italy before drawing the first comics with Chibitalia (and that is how the idea of Hetalia was born). First hypothesis: Hima has read that 476 D.C. is the canonical date of the dissolution of the Roman Empire, but that in reality even after its dissolution the Roman Empire continued to exist in some way, and it is absolutely true, because often the fall of an empire is not something that happens in a day or a year, historians decide these official dates for this kind of phenomena just to have points of reference for their timelines.

So Grandpa Rome didn't disappear on that date (476), but it's from that date that he started to weaken, but he still lived, even for other 400 years (Prussia is an example of this, although the amount of years is not comparable).

He started getting wounds from numerous battles and then died because he was killed by another nation, probably Germania (I don't remember if it's still like that in canon, and if it's true that a nation can only be killed by another nation).

Second hypothesis: Hima was still learning the history of Italy and also took into consideration the Eastern Roman Empire (which is obviously not exactly like the Western one)

(first of all, thank you for the ask!)

Note from Future!Me: this post has become massive, my apologies.

If you want to skip all the thought process and stuff, I made a recap of my conclusions at the end.

You're right, it was a little too farfetched of me to assume that Rome would've died in 476 AD. Though, I think 400 years is a little too much ..? Trying to find more clues rn. I'm now reading through the Chibitalia arc and

I think it would be weird of HRE to say "let's revive the Roman Empire!" if Rome was still around as the representative of the Eastern Roman Empire. Plus, if he was the Eastern Roman Empire, that'd mean he would've survived until not too long before America was found. That sounds a bit too much, to me.

... Then again, just a few panels after, we have this one that seems to imply Rome is still alive (though it could just be Feli recalling what Rome said about Germania or Germanics in general in the past).

There's these notes, that I just found:

The way Hima says it, it seems to imply that Feli and Romano lived "in peace" until Rome disappeared and left them at the mercy of other Countries/bullies.

With the "Beginning with France's advance", I thought Hima meant Charlemagne's conquering of the Kingdom of the Lombards, which saw the Germanic Lombards taking over Byzantine Italy. I guess that would explain why HRE and France specifically were shown alongside Chibitalia..?

That'd make Rome still alive after the Fall of 476 AD, but in that case he wouldn't be the personification of the Eastern Roman Empire per se, but basically the "leftovers" that were still existing in Italy before either getting conquered by foreign powers or gaining enough independence to de facto being their own thing, no longer "Roman" and not culturally Byzantine either.

Thinking of a little parallel here - when Hima retconned HRE's death, he basically made him come back from the war that we thought killed him on the spot, only he had now probably became human and succumbed from the wounds and infections that he gained on that battlefield against France.

So, perhaps when Grandpa Rome "took Chibitalia and left", that was 476 AC like you said :O And since he was now more similar to a human than to a Nation, maybe he decided to spend the little he was left to live with his favorite grandson and give him and himself the closest he could think of to a 'normal life', albeit briefly. So they lived for an unclear amount of time just drawing pretty pictures, singing and bonding like grandpa and grandson.

Germania could have still have killed Rome definitely in 476 AC, like France did with HRE. Nonetheless, both actually came back but they were no longer full Nations and they had little time left before disappearing.

Chibitalia referring to Rome having painful wounds could've just been a memory that stuck with him even from before 476 AC, it's just something he started noticing more and more as the Empire started to face its decline. And I guess, as much as post-476 Rome tried to hide it, Feli probably knew and saw how much in pain Rome was.

Back to the Kingdom of Lombards, it existed between 568-569 and 774, when it was conquered by Charlemagne and the Franks.

So, let's say, Mortal!Rome took Feli away between 476 and 500s. He dies for real sometime in the 600s or 700s and Feli comes back.

Now, what he comes back to, it's hard to say. Has Feli met Germania? Was HRE already alive even though HRE itself didn't exist yet..? Who knows.

Either way, from 774 on, Feli is conquered by France (via Charlemagne). In 843, the Carolingian Empire is split into West Francia (what would keep being embodied by Francis), Middle Francia and East Francia (on the territory embodied by HRE, Feli, pre-unitary German States, etc).

In 962, Holy Roman Empire has its actual, official founding when Otto The Great is crowned by the Pope as Emperor of its territories which were pretty much what's now mainly Germany and Northern Italy (plus a bit of other territories like Switzerland, a bit of France and Austria, some Czechia and Slovakia and probably more I can't identify in the map I'm looking at while writing this). Roderich would be canonically born 14 years later, in 976. I'm mentioning this because he already looks like an awkward teen here, peeking:

THIS IS ALL COMING TOGETHER, I THINK.

So, here's why HRE mentions that he has loved Feli "since the 900s"! Hima was probably referring to how most Germanic territories and Northern Italy officially conflated into Holy Roman Empire in 962. The panel up there is most likely set in the late 1400s or early 1500s because Hima makes it clear that around this time, Austria and Spain were married as the Habsburg:

Aaand, the actual Chibitalia arc starts in the 1500s:

So, I guess what makes the timeline so confusing in the beginning is that Hima made some weird choices when it comes to who appears in which panel (HRE appearing in these panels still makes NO SENSE and throws this whole post out of the window T.T)

But let's pretend HRE already existed a long time before HRE itself, like Feli. Eh, that's the only sort-of-explanation that would work, I guess. HRE existed as the embodiment of a "collective sense of Germanicness" that Germania himself didn't have, much like how Rome didn't have the "collective sense of Italianness" that brought Feli (and by extention Romano?) to life.

... The other thing making it confusing is that the beginning of Chibitalia is written as basically three flashbacks piled ontop of each other which makes it very hard to figure what Hima was referring to with each of them, especially because stuff like "France invades Italy" are true for more than just one time throughout history.

•

I could've made this post shorter and just write my conclusions, but I think it's more fun to leave the whole reasoning and thought process out in the wild :'D

Sooo, to recap:

Sometime after 323 AD (Rome's Christianization), Feli and Romano (and supposedly HRE) are born. He finds the Italies and spends time with them separately.

In 476 AD (Fall of Rome), Germania kills Rome. Rome, however, doesn't disappear and, albeit in a semi-mortal state (kind of like Prussia), he keeps existing thanks to the parts of Europe/Italy that are still under the Byzantine Empire.

Sometime after 476 AD, Rome decides to spend what's left for him to live with Chibitalia, giving him something close to a period of genuine childhood, treating him like his grandson. His wounds are however very painful and it's clear that Rome won't stay around for much longer.

Sometime between the 600s and early 700s, Grandpa Rome actually disappears and leaves Feli alone. Feli comes back to his land and finds out that Germanics (I'd dare to say Germania was still alive alongside a baby HRE who wasn't technically HRE yet, much like how Feli was far from being technically Italy yet) have taken over the land his Grandpa had given him. He finds himself in the middle of internal Lombard quarrels and the growing menace of France (Franks, Charlemagne) from the 700s.

He pretty much keeps being bullied around for the whole time until he eventually ends up in Austria and HRE's House in the 1500s, where the Chibitalia arc properly begins.

//tries to catch breath.

There ... I-I think that's it.

Thank you very much for sharing your opinion on this, I was kind of forgetting about the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire, but in the end it was what helped me the most trying to put the pieces back together!

I mean, this is probably not even exactly what Hima meant, but I guess it's alright. I don't think I can do better than this with my limited knowledge and wish to try and not defy canon too much ;w;

#hetalia #aph italies #aph hre #aph rome #aph grandpa rome #aph roman empire #aph ancient rome #aph manga #aph official #ary spoke #ask #hetalia lore #aph lore #analysis.txt

[canmom]

Comics Comints: Witch Hat Atelier

Welcome back to Comics Comints, the series where I comint on comics.

First up! Comics Comints now has a proper archive. Enjoy larger images, alt text, and tags for navigation.

Tonight, it’s time we did a manga! If you recall that post about paneling and time from a couple of weeks ago, you know it’s one I liked rather a lot...

Witch Hat Atelier (とんがり帽子のアトリエ Tongari Bōshi no Atorie)

(writing and art: Kamome Shirahama (白浜 鴎), trans. Rasmus-kun, #dropout and Project Vinland scanlation groups. I’m going to be using the name romanisations decided on by #dropout since they’re generally a lot better than the official ones lmao)

Ahh, Witch Hat Atelier. A truly wonderful comic, such that it’s tough to know where to begin.

Sometimes I compare it to getting my hands on a whole new Berserk, because Shirahama’s drawings have that same sense of being exquisite: gorgeously flowing cloth and hair and perfectly placed hatching, overwhelming confidence and attention to detail, an old-school romantic fantasy world you could really fall into. (Also I think she draws faces kinda like Miura does.)

Witch Hat Atelier begins with a girl called Coco living in a fantasy world in which the population is divided into humans and witches. Not unlike a certain Akko, she idealises magic. But she ends up performing magic by accident, unleashing a spell that turns her mother to stone. After this, the kindly Professor Quifrey, who definitely harbours no ulterior motive, breaks the taboo and lets her into the secret: anyone could do magic with the right tools (a pen and special ink), and the witches are maintaining an elaborate masquerade for the sake of containing terrible magical superweapons.

Or at least, the dominant Pointed Hat Witches are. Their enemies, a conspiracy known as the Brimhats, want to break these artificial shackles... and for reasons we don’t yet know, they see this novice witch Coco as their key.

Anyway, the thing that got me to read Witch Hat Atelier was this video...

...by manga youtuber Lines in Motion, which analyses Shirahama’s inventive panelling. It’s really nicely edited and a great primer on the principles of comic composition.

Anyway, per that video, Shirahama took inspiration from not just other manga, but old school European illustration like John Tenniel and Arthur Rackham - and good old Moebius of course. Unfortunately, this video doesn’t provide its sources, and I struggle to find some kind of interview where I can get the artist’s own words. Still, looking at her style, she’s not shy about gesturing to Art Nouveau, or the general tradition of European etching.

And when Shirahama uses colour - sadly only occasionally, though I can understand why! - she deploys beautiful watercolours that call to mind the same tradition (and perhaps certain recent manga like The Girl From The Other Side).

So, before we dive into talking about the comic itself, let me see what I can dig up about Kamome Shirahama herself and her inspirations. She studied art in Japan, at Tokyo University of the Arts, and starting publishing comics in the seinen magazine Fellows! in 2011; this led to a bizarre lucky break when her art was noticed at Comic-Con by someone at Marvel, which gave her a foothold into the Western comics industry, starting with this character Doctor Strange in 2015 (source):

Even seven years ago, you can see Shirahama could really fucking draw. This apparently continued with various other covers for DC and Marvel; meanwhile, having finished her two-year project Eniale & Dewiela (エニデヴィ, Enidevi) about an angel and devil brought together by a mutual enthusiasm for fashion, she embarked on Witch Hat Atelier in 2016 which continues to the present, with 64 issues available at the time of writing.

All this results in perhaps a perfectly optimised Art Build: both her parents are artists, she went to art school, she’s got a familiarity with both Japanese and Western illustration styles to fuel her. And that’s also perfect material for Witch Hat Atelier, which is about - among many other things - the struggles of learning art.

That word Atelier is interesting to me. In Japanese, it seems like アトリエ atorie is not an entirely uncommon word for an artist’s workshop even in the present. In English, its scope is generally much narrower: it refers to a particular tradition of art schools that began in the middle ages and lasted roughly until photography, whose primary function was to teach students how to draw in perspective using a variety of mechanical means like wire grids or sight-size techniques.

(a painting by Jefferson Chalfant of an atelier from the late 1800s - source Wikimedia Commons. I’m vaguely amused by the thought of this guy Chalfant showing up to the atelier and flexing on the students by painting not just the model but also all the other students, the room behind them, and thumbnails of all their paintings.)

Nowadays you’re most likely to hear the word ‘atelier’ in the context of the Atelier series of games, in which you play as a young witch and your atelier is essentially an alchemist’s workshop where you brew potions. I don’t have enough data to say how far the association between ateliers and magic goes - I’ve seen at least one more instance (Maria Umineko uses the word) - but in any case...

‘Magic systems’ in fantasy fiction are tricky things. Without some care, they can just be colour that carries very little thematic weight. Fortunately this is very much not true of Witch Hat Atelier. The basic premise of its system is that magic is created by drawing precise circles with certain symbolic elements whose size relationships combine to specify the magic effect. It’s explained in some detail, although there’s enough vague that Shirahama can have some real fun with the imagery.

The important part, though, is that while it’s not exactly the same as representative illustration, it’s close enough to it to be analogous. In Quifrey’s atelier, Coco meets a group of young students who each have their own styles of magic. Riché, for example, was treated cruelly by an arrogant teacher who insisted on orthodoxy, and now stubbornly insists on practicing only her own specific magical techniques; an important turning point sees her learn how to lean on other people without sacrificing her personal style. Coco has some skills she can lean on as a tailor’s daughter, but still has to drill fundamentals like learning to draw in a single smooth confident stroke.

It’s not quite as ‘trials of an artist’ as something like Blue Period (no spoilers, I’ve only read a bit of that), but it is a deeply compelling element of the mix...

However, magic is only somewhat like illustration. It’s also useful. And this leads to a fascinating subtheme around disability. One of the rules the Pointed Hat witches operate under is that they can’t use magic on the human body. So when a boy Coustas’s legs are injured by haywire magic, witches can give him an adorable deer legs wheelchair...

...but he faces many of the same obstacles as a real wheelchair user in a world not built for access. Coco and her friend Tartar try to figure out a method to help him without breaking the rules, eventually coming on the solution of creating a flying cloak as a new accessibility device, seemingly to everyone’s satisfaction... but then (spoilers) Coustas runs into a Brimhat who’s like “actually we have no compunctions doing a transhumanism on you” and give him legs back (if weirder), turning him against the MCs. But that same power is one we just recently saw used to forcibly transform people against their will. It’s an interesting mirror of the common ‘disability in sci-fi’ question; Coustas’s struggle is not merely that he is disabled, but that the world does not accomodate him and this completely strips him of independence, despite very little ill will from anyone.

And to her credit, Shirahama doesn’t seem to be trying to be going for a didactic angle on this (Coustas should or shoudn’t want...), but treats it as a worthwhile and interesting conflict, and I’m genuinely excited to see how it will resolve. Nor is Coustas the only user of a ‘sealchair’ - one of the main leaders of the witches uses one due to some kind of unspecified fatigue condition, even transforming it in battle, something which largely passes without comment since that’s not really the main focus of the character.

Anyway, despite their separate social system, the witches in Witch Hat Atelier have to make a living, which they do primarily by selling magic items to the non-magical population - subject to various safety regulations which are pretty strict and have a curious attitude towards deception in keeping with the Pointed Hat witches’ MO (don’t make a heatless flame or children might get the wrong idea!). So despite the wonder conveyed so effectively in Shirahama’s vistas of floating islands and twisting paths and underwater cities, it’s a magic that’s very grounded, shaped by the needs of a feudal society. She’s incredibly good at tying in these kinds of ~worldbuilding~ tidbit to the evolving character arcs, so the setting as a whole feels warm and lived-in but also shot through with genuine intractable tensions.

(I tend to show the more elaborate compositions with borders and splash panels, but even the more standard rectangular-panel pages have a real elegance to them)

One of these tensions is that between adults and children. There are many terrible teachers in the pages of Witch Hat Atelier - ones who berate their charges and shatter their self-confidence, or even in one chapter we witness a teacher who will not defend her student who is sexually assaulted by a nobleman and fights back (the only time the subject is brought up in the comic, and handled with care). Even for Quifrey, the picture of a benevolent instructor or good dad lmao, we have the lurking question of whether he intends to use Coco as an opportunity to pursue revenge against the Brimhats.

The children are surrounded by a world that doesn’t seem to work the way it should, rules that don’t seem to make sense but they have to follow, in a way that feels very genuine. And they have reason to fear: the standard punishment of the Pointed Hat witches is to wipe someone’s entire memories of magic and start them in a new life as a civilian. The fear of an extreme, draconian punishment leads the kids to end up keeping their own secrets.

But the adults are far from all bad. If, perhaps, the good relationships are a tragedy waiting to happen...

Then there are the witches and the secular authorities - monarchs of various kingdoms who are itching to get their hands on the secrets of magic. As the cast expands - and believe me it expands a lot - we start getting more and more points of view, and Shirahama is very deft at sketching a character’s motivation and vibe in just a few pages.

When it comes to comics about students at a school for magic, inevitably comparisons will be drawn to the elephant in the room, A Wizard of Earths- what’s that? - oh, yeah, that one.

So, yeah, according to Wikipedia, Shirahama took inspiration from both Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Frankly I think she writes wrings around both of them, but then she’s writing a much more modern style of fantasy for an audience literate in the genre, with modern concerns, so perhaps it’s not a surprise I’d like it more than Tolkien. (Rowling is a thoroughly mean-spirited fascist who represents the worst of this country, and if I were to go through the comparison, it would just be a list of things that I think Shirahama does a whole lot better, so I won’t do that.)

What is a little interesting is seeing how, after Potter’s international proliferation, some of the imagery of the robe and wizard hat and school for magic starts to grow into a standard setting in Japanese fiction. Obviously Trigger’s Little Witch Academia is the big one - and I’m fond of it, but it shares little with it beyond the main character’s enchantment (ha) with the idea of magic. NieR Reincarnation is much less likely to ping on anyone’s radar, being a fairly obscure mobile gacha game, but it also took a magic school as the setting for some of its brief tragedies. No idea if that’s going to continue, or if it’s just a passing thing, but brain see pattern...

Anyway, it wouldn’t be Comics Comints without a detailed art breakdown, would it? There’s so much going on in Shirahama’s pages that it will be hard to capture everything, nor is this series really supposed to be comprehensive. Since I’ve talked a bunch about paneling already, let’s take a closer look at the characters...

Let’s start with kids, since most of the characters are kids. Here’s a handful of panels from chapter 42, page 13, trans. #Dropout (the work done primarily by Hypomanix and Botanyrobot in this issue). I think it’s a decently neutral example of a drawing of Coco.

There’s a lot that goes into a drawing of a face, to make it look delicate. But to my mind (c.f. the human head, a series I still intend to finish) the key elements are...

the profile of the face - this shape determines a lot

the size, shape, and style of the eyes

the balance of features

the way you draw hair

I said previously that Shirahama’s style reminded me of Kentaro Miura’s, but that’s mostly when she’s drawing kids. Shirahama’s designs are definitely within the broader ‘anime’ milieu, but there’s an old-school quality. Let’s break it down...

face profile - very rounded shapes. ubiquitous ‘cheek bump’ (pink), which helps the characters appear young.

as a standard ‘anime mannequin’ head, the overall aspect ratio is quite square, the neck is thin and relatively central, and the eyeline stays low.

eyes - this is where Shirahama puts most of the visual information (density of lines), with multiple rings of hatched shadows and highlights. In the picture above I’ve outlined the main shapes that go into drawing Coco’s eyes. Some of them can be identified as anatomical features, others highlights and shadows indicating form, some (the blue crescent shaped shadow for example) are perhaps just pure visual elements? Importantly, the outer outline of the eye is broken at the sides. All this complex shading gives a kind of shiny, watery feeling that suggests emotion bubbling under the surface even if the rest of the expression is very simple.

Coco’s eyes are very wide, representing her innocence. More adult characters tend to have narrower eyes, as we’ll see.

balance of the features

'Big eyes, small mouth’ as the name of the old roleplaying game goes. Note that Coco’s face is wider than it is tall. Just the end of the nose is drawn, but its placement suggests the 3D form of the face so it doesn’t appear flat overall. The suggest is there’s more nose but the bridge of the nose is so smooth that it doesn’t really get a line - if you’ve ever seen a plastic anime figurine you get the idea.

The emphasis is very much on the eyes.

hair

Hair is something that Shirahama really excels at, and honestly I want to absorb her secrets, so lets have a look at the way she does things. The way you can look at it is basically by dividing the hair into primary and secondary forms.

Coco here has very straight hair where the principle is particularly clear. First, you divide the hairstyle as a whole into large groups or blocks where the hair is flowing a particular way. For Coco, she has a part on her left (our right); her fringe forms one block of hair, which may go over or under the block of hair coming down from the top of her head depending on the picture.

Within each block, the hair is constructed out of smaller crescent-shaped elements which overlap each other (indicated by T-intersections between lines), and follow the overall flow. These merge towards the root of the hair block (the lines dividing them disappear)...

Then, additional lines can be drawn inside each block to add additional texture.

Judging by videos I’ve seen, Shirahama seems to be able to do these kinds of line straight away in ink, which is why they look so clean and confident.

For characters with darker hair, similar design principles apply, but instead of indicating the flow of the hair through outlines, Shirahama uses white lines within the form to indicate specular highlights. (Contrast Coustas’s eyes here to Coco’s incidentally: their emotional states are communicated by the different shading styles).

Now, let’s take a look at Quifrey and Orugio, two of the main adult characters in the comic...

Quifrey (right) has to carry a lot of the comic, and if you look at Shirahama’s design notes, he’s also one whose design evolved the most towards the fairly bishie one he got in the end. He has to be goofy, kindly, and sometimes sinister. He’s certainly not a villain, but he is willing to do some pretty shady shit - but he’s also good at presenting a generally sort of bemused affect, which is indicated by simplifying his design a lot.

The Gandalf/Dumbledore sort of archetype, but less magisterial - Quifrey is not an especially powerful witch. There’s a very overt indication of his divided nature in his glasses - there’s a plot reason why they’re different colours but the combination of dark lens and fringe hiding his eye screams “he’s hiding something”.

Quifrey’s friend Orugio (left) meanwhile is a more straightforward character, hard working, down to earth and straight-laced but out of a genuine sense of caring. Honestly, the fact he has facial hair is something that’s very rare in manga! One thing I notice just now while searching for suitably illustrative panels is that his face is often seen angled down, while Quifrey is more often seen from below.

The basic construction is similar to the kids’ heads, but a few differences to notice. As is the rule, adults’ eyes are proportionally a lot smaller than kids’ eyes. The construction of the face is slightly more angular, and they actually have noses.

Quifrey’s hair is a lot messier than Coco’s, but it’s essentially constructed out of the same overlapping crescents, which don’t especially respect gravity for Quifrey. Orugio’s hair is a solid dark mass, with a lot of loose strands around the edges, but you can still kind of see the locks of hair providing structure to the shape.

Shirahama’s lines are usually very even and thin, but she’ll often use a thicker line in a face closeup to emphasise the jawline, and in general a very subtly thicker line to outline forms than to hatch inside them. She uses screentones as you can see, but also extensively uses very neat hatching to create blocks of shadow or blend lines into larger shadow shapes. Her lines have an incredible amount of confidence and precision.

That’s faces, but what about the figure as a whole? One of Shirahama’s real gifts is her ability to draw flowing cloth with an incredible sense of motion. Here’s a classic Shirahama splash panel...

The contrast of organic shapes of cloth against the large circular element is something Shirahama loves doing - as is the use of negative space.

Breaking down the cloth: you have the solid lines representing the outer edge of folds, and then hatching within the body of the cloak to indicate shadows. In some places the hatching runs along the direction of the folds, in other cases perpendicular with it, all blending together. You can basically see how it breaks down into conical pipe folds that overlap each other, coming to a sinuous line at the bottom. Then this biiiig shape is contrasted against Quifrey’s thin neck, always upright, and the area of detail in his face. It’s just like. Really expert drawing by someone who knows the craft up and down.

There aren’t a lot of opportunities to see how Shirahama goes about designing one of these figures, but there are a couple of roughs she’s put out, so let me take a brief look at that to wrap up the drawing section.

this is a rejected draft for one of the first pages in the story. it looks like Shirahama roughs things out in quite a thick pencil, then uses a blue pencil(?) to refine, before inking. I suspect there may be more steps between, which she rubs out before inking...

These early designs seem to have been drawn into a thicker pen, with less care taken over the linework. What’s most interesting to me is how much Quifrey’s head shape changed as Shirahama’s concept of the character evolved.

Finally here’s a timelapse video of Shirahama inking a drawing of Coco.

You can see she starts with a pencil sketch that has the major shapes nailed down but not yet the line quality. She outlines all the main shapes, erases the pencils, then fills in the details at a slightly lower line weight. She’s got a ridiculously confident hand considering how much detail is going straight to ink in a way that makes my digital artist brain flinch.

The way Shirahama uses hatching reminds me a bit of Kimihiko Fujisaka, artist for Voice of Cards. I think I gotta practice more in ink lol, digital just doesn’t seem to give the same feel. Something about the mechanics of the way the pen flicks across the paper, maybe?

And that’s I think everything I have to say. Read this comic, it’s good! ...oh wait, there’s an anime coming! As yet, the studio and staff are to be determined. Shirahama’s style seems very difficult to capture in animation, so I’ll be curious to see how they handle it.

Next up: The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal I think.

#comics #witch hat atelier #manga #comics comints

[derseprinceoftbd]

In honor of the new Upd8, here's the updated version of my Personal Homestuck Explainer.

An explainer for Homestuck, typed up on a Google doc for Reddit, and now transplanted onto Tumblr, and too long to fit in a single reddit comment. Most explainers I've seen utterly fail to get the tone of the series across, thus not answering the main question I see: "what is Homestuck *and why is it like this*". Why does it evoke the reactions it does? Why are so many things considered a reference? Who is Vriska? (I can't actually explain that one in under 3000 words, it turns out.) But, here's a briefer briefer (heh) on the subject of "What the actual fuck is Homestuck":

Andrew Hussie, a person (now going by any pronouns) then known for various obscure things around the net, made an interactive reader-driven comic-type-thing called Jailbreak where he would draw panels demonstrating the events of the story as dictated by other posters in the thread, putting his favored suggestions in the narration and responding in kind. The happenings and variables were influenced by his own strange brand of humor and set of fascinations, such as rap, horses, clowns, and H!rry P!tter as a cultural presence. He would eventually compile this, along with the unfinished followup, Bard Quest, on its own website.

The third installment of the so-called MS Paint Adventures, Problem Sleuth, was a massive step up in production value, featuring impressive art and output speed as well as evolutions such as some pages being flashing gifs. This sort of thing was considered to be one of the best demonstrations of the potential of the internet. It ran for 1674 pages over the course of about a year.

Homestuck was the followup to that, running 8123 pages from April 13th 2009-2016 with numerous hiatuses in the latter half of that time. It featured such advancements as videos with sound, small WASD-controlled computer games on various pages, and most significantly, actual conversations between characters, semi-hidden behind clickable boxes at the bottom of some pages, allowing them to become three-dimensional and truly sympathetic. Hussie, it would soon be revealed, was heavily skilled at writing compelling and unique character voices and dialogue writing in general.

Homestuck was definitely the most complex MPSA, with a grand overarching plot being integrated into the results of the actions of the readers. The plot revolved around an in-universe game called SBURB with the power to influence reality, sort of a Jumanji with time-travel mechanics that would soon be revealed to be the centerpiece of reality itself, destroying the home planets of its players to motivate them to enter the world of the game and fulfill an unknown grand purpose, complete with millions of fully sentient NPCs. (Homestuck is, technically, an isekai.)

Homestuck has been described as "a story that's also a puzzle", and this lens has gained authorial approval; events are often told anachronistically, as a kitchen sink of high-concept ideas are explored by a man who sometimes wants to show off his semi-deconstructive version of a classic sci-fi/fantasy trope, sometimes wants to infuriate readers through anticlimaxes and misdirections, and sometimes wants to just go off on a tangent about a random movie from his childhood that somehow soon becomes integral to the plot in an absurdly esoteric fashion.

Eventually the suggestions from readers became so numerous and difficult that the suggestion boxes were closed near the end of the first year, leading to less meandering from Act 4 onwards, but the influence of the audience remained; one easy example is a character only seen from the top half initially being theorized on the official forums as using a wheelchair, a fact which would not only become Canon, but highly relevant.

The early MSPAs curated an audience through programming humor and 80s-90s film references as filtered through the styles of Terry Pratchett, Mark Twain, and the Something Awful forums, but the audience for Homestuck, due to the nature of the characters, was markedly different, especially after the Trolls showed up.

You've probably seen them.

The Trolls, initially presented as some extremely odd and bothersome fellows on the internet, were soon shown to be a race of grey-skinned, orange-horned aliens. Trolls possessed multicolored blood in both organized castes and clear deviations, psychic abilities, unique typing styles, insectoid traits as opposed to hominid, near-universal bisexuality with the sole known exception being Sapphic, and a complex romantic system with its own symbols, comically vague-yet-comprehensive reproductive system, and of course, relationship dynamics.

I cannot express how perfect the Trolls were in terms of catching on. Tumblr loved these fuckers and it's not at all hard to see why.

It's also worth noting that this wasn't the only market-perfect part of Homestuck; Classpecting, the equivalent of Hogwarts Houses, featured a 144/168/288/336/384(depending on who you ask and what they count)-strong grid system of human personality traits that not only seemed eerily accurate as a personality mapper, but corresponded to what elemental powers one received in the game of SBURB.

So... yeah. Homestuck was an incredibly complex and engaging work, driven by a single incredibly talented and flawed creative voice, which was perfectly made to attract a massive, unabashedly bizarre/proudly cringe, and notably largely queer fanbase across a younger internet; you may well be aware of incidents such as cosplay failures and inappropriate recreations of Troll culture. The style of presentation, art, and character writing was instantly recognizable and relatively easy to imitate, leading to fanfiction and even fanmade adventures galore, most of the latter hosted on MSPFA.com.

The main site for Homestuck is broken now-it's recommended that new readers download the [Unofficial Homestuck Collection](https://bambosh.dev/unofficial-homestuck-collection/), and starting with Problem Sleuth to ease into the format and writing is a pretty popular choice. The ending is also considered generally quite poor in a number of ways, particularly regarding unfollowed foreshadowing and blatant abandonment of character arcs, with some fans even [making](https://friendlybatteringram.tumblr.com/tagged/altstuck) their own [works](https://mspfa.com/?s=44153&p=1) as [substitutions](http://mspfa.com/?s=12003&p=1). You can find The Homestuck Epilogues (a sequel novel) on the official site, and Homestuck^2 Beyond Canon (a sequel webcomic after the Epilogues) on its own website, but neither of these are very well liked by fans (at all). YouTube also has several dubs of the comic; by far the largest and most popular is [Voxus](https://youtube.com/@Voxus), which has unfortunately slowed to a crawl at around the 65% mark.

Content warnings for Homestuck include: blood, violence including decapitation, clowns, brainwashing/mental possession, dicks-out furry bara art in the background of like ten pages, brief black-and-white nudity, swearing, the R-slur, a joke about an acronym organically forming the F-slur, child abuse, discussed child abuse and homophobia, mocking of the disabled (as an unsympathetic action), cartoonish levels of sexism (as an unsympathetic action), statements that an antagonist is analogous to Hitler, mocking of otherkin, a minor character being a racial stereotype of Japanese people (Damara), a somewhat major character being a stereotype of Black people (Meenah), minor characters being stereotypes of disabled people (Meulin and Mituna), a controversial and prominent depiction of blindness, eye trauma, underage alcoholism, written depections of noncon facilitated by mind control (as an unsympathetic action), sexual assult (an unwanted kiss, as an unsympathetic action), jokes about pedophilia, and child grooming (textually 100% non-sexual, but sexually-coded).

Also: when I said the Trolls type weird, I wasn't kidding. Every character gets at least one color for their speech text, plus a pattern for how they type, generally worse for the Trolls, ranging from "no caps" to "British" to "drunk" to "ebonics" to "aLtErNaTiNg" to WH4T3V3R TH3 FUCK K1ND OF L33TSP34K BS T3R3Z1 1S DO1NG. So that's worth a warning.

And that's as abridged as you can get when summing up Homestuck.

#andrew hussie #Hussie #hs2 #crow strider au #homestuck #altstuck #tlcstuck #csau #cs au #ddota #Double-Death Of The Author #double death of the author #homestuck explained #Homestuck explainer #contains references to priest scribe theory #mspa #mspfa #voxus #unofficial homestuck collection #explainer #fandom explainer

[markantonys]

Was there an actual trailer for wot season two yet???

Like,,, what’s up with that

not yet, but there have been 2 short teaser reels! they came out quite a while ago so you might've already seen them, but linking them just in case 1 2

from what i've read, it seems that the average window of time between official trailer and release date for prime shows is smaller these days than it was back when s1 came out. it's confirmed that WOT will have a panel at san diego comic con on 7/20, which will include "exclusive season 2 content" and a "sneak peek" into the season, so we can definitely bank on a trailer releasing then at the latest.

however, i still have hope that we may see one this upcoming week! my reasoning is based on two comparable-ish prime shows. a) good omens released its first season 2 trailer 7 weeks before the premier date. this week is 7 weeks before september 1. b) rings of power allegedly released its trailer the week before sdcc last year rather than during sdcc (i saw someone say that but i didn't fact check it). and i do think that makes sense bc then the panelists can see the trailer in advance and know what specific things they'll be allowed to talk about, and whoever comes up with panel questions for sdcc (i'm not sure how it works) can also have a week to think up some questions related to footage shown in the trailer.

maybe i'm a clown, but i'm going to be ready for a trailer this week just in case!

#anonymous #answered