Tumgik
#and hopefully! i will make comics that people will want to support through patreon or something like that!
brother-emperors · 7 months
Text
like, I'm old school web comic culture, I like handmade zines that are stapled, I just want to make comics and tell stories and the ranking system of the popular webcomic sites exhaust me to my core, which is why I like tumblr. I want to draw sulla wound fingering crassus and not think about the metrics.
91 notes · View notes
elbdot · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
You know what? This year may have been THE most chaotic one yet in EVERY aspect of the word - but it surely was my most productive year as well! As many emotionally ups and downs as I had, as hard it was to distract yourself from the CHAOS of the world and the justified anger, fear and frustration of the people, I can still say that my year has been more positive than the ones before! I feel different - more like...myself. MORE me. Almost complete. And I have the strong desire to show more of myself out there, to be seen and recognized for what I do and who I am, I want my work to go OUT THERE, to make new friends and find new business partners so I can finally go ALL OUT and republish my books - and I did actually form new friendships this year, more in one year than I did in the past 6 years combined, it's incredible! I stepped out there and made new friends by not even particularly DOING anything - I was just me: A pure bug nerd walking with Maybugs and wild bees on my hands through the streets - that's how I met MULTIPLE people this year.
And I gave myself the space and time to flourish artistically in EVERY direction - From Fakemon Designs to animal studies, horse illustrations, realistic styles, comic styles, personal-, fan- and Pokemoncomics, traditional animation, puppet animation, Photography, SKITS on Youtube - EVERYTHING I wanted to do I DID and I am VERY PROUD that I was able to see through and finish almost everything I started this year or had begun to work on the year before!
There's so much I still want to do and I hope to achieve next year - when I hopefully am more in power again, when my body has recovered from its current whooping cough, when I can contact agencies again. And I really hope social media will become more kind to us artists again, when we currently have to struggle so much with algorithms who want us to be influencers and content machines to post daily. That's why I'm really grateful for my community here on tumblr and the fact that it is not being dictated by an unforgiving algorithm like twitter and Instagram is. On here you actually still have a chance to be seen.
Thank you all SO MUCH for your support this year! Especially those of you, who decided to join my community on Patreon and have become part of my Discord server. You guys have lifted my spirit in ways I couldn't describe and I'm so happy to have such a kind and incredibly generous community! Truly, thank you all so much for being here!
Onward to 2024, let's hope it will treat us all with gentleness and kindness 🥹🥰💖💕
Socials | Patreon
435 notes · View notes
eschergirls · 8 months
Text
Tumblr media
Hi everybody!
It's a new month, so that means it's time to thank our supporters of Patreon and to give a monthly update on the site!
First, The Patreon issues I mentioned last month I think are now resolved, so hopefully that means there's no longer any issues.  If you are having any issues with subscribing to Escher Girls on Patreon, please let me know!
The big news this month is I've restored several posts to the Escher Girls archives that I think people would be interested in, especially if you haven't seen them before.  The coolest one is this old redraw by Ghostarin/Cloudarin of a Star Wars comic cover.  What's really cool is they did 4 different versions of the poses to show different ways you could position the characters to make the action make sense.  As part of the restoration, I've also added additional commentary because I've had more time to appreciate just *how good* their ideas for alternative poses were. 
As well, I've restored all three posts of X-Blades/Blades of Time, and consolidated the series into one tag. Previously, each post was actually filled under different tags: X-Blades, X Blades, and Blades of Time, now they're all under X-Blades (which is also labeled Blades of Time so searching for either title brings you to the same place).  The three restored posts are here: 1, 2, 3.  One of the posts doesn't seem to actually exist on Tumblr anymore, possibly because Tumblr thought it was too adult, or the original submitter deleted their blog and this was when I was still using the Tumblr default autopost for submissions. 
On that note, I'm still working on unflagging posts on Tumblr, in most cases it seems to only add a mature flag to posts, but in others the posts seem to just be missing (or the tags seem to be empty if there's a flagged post).  If you experience any issues on Tumblr with missing content or empty tags, please let me know!  I'd like to appeal everything I can or just fix anything I'm able to.
That some posts just vanish from Tumblr is one of the reasons why I decided to self-host and why I appreciate any support I get because it helps me to keep the site independent and keep the archive as something I control.
Also, as a reminder, you can follow Escher Girls using RSS. (For newbies, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is basically a feed you can read using an RSS reader. Simply copy and paste https://eschergirls.com/rss.xml into an RSS reader and it will keep you up to date on Escher Girls!)
If you have any suggestions for upgrades to the site that would make it more readable and usable to you, please let me know!  Especially if there's a particular commenting service or style you'd like us to use since i know the interaction is part of the fun, and I don't know how many people use Disqus anymore.
And now, I want to give a huge thank you to our August Patreon supporters:
So thank you so much to:
Anne Adler Cat Mara CheerfulOptimistic Chris McKenzie Em Bardon First Time Trek Greg Sepelak Ian Cameron Ken Trosaurus Kevin Carson Kim Wincen Kristoffer Illern Holmén Leak Manuel Dalton Mary Kuhner Max Schwarz Michael Mazur Michael Norton Miriam Pody Morgan McEvoy mors_d randomisedmongoose Rebecca Breu Ringoko Ryan Gerber Sam Mikes Sean Sea SnigePippi SpecialRandomCast Thomas Thomas Key
Oh, and there's also *one more post* I restored, which I decided to save for the upcoming 12th anniversary post of Escher Girls next Monday.  It is definitely something people will want to see, so hopefully you all enjoy it!
And again, I want to thank everybody for reading, interacting, commenting, and submitting things to the site because you're why Escher Girls continues to exist into it's 12th anniversary! :D
Thank you all so much,
Ami
(If you wish to support Escher Girls, you can subscribe to our Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/ami_angelwings or donate through Ko-Fi at: https://ko-fi.com/amiangelwings.)
21 notes · View notes
superfrenzyhare · 3 months
Text
The ultimate journal for the ultimate journey
Hello everybody I hope you’re ready for one of those immense posts people do that no one reads, though I suggest some of you do, it’s important. [b]Hopefully, I will never need to write down this much in the future. Just know, for short, that everything I do is to favor quality over quantity.
I’ve been thinking it over and I came to a conclusion. Some of you might remember a post from some time back where I mentioned my work being boring.
Many of you disagreed, and you were right. The problem with my work is not that It’s boring, but that it became incredibly corporate. That’s what’s been bugging me. This profile started with the intent of being somewhat of a journal for me to keep track of things on my way to get back into art proper and to try and put myself on the path of self-improvement after a long time of stagnation.
Posting was supposed to be secondary, exploring was the focus, and it had worked… Up to the point when Gone Feral found success (DON’T WORRY I’m not going to stop updating, nor am I going to take a break), more precisely, when I decided to try and make it a business.
Opening a Patreon is fine, but there is such a thing as too soon. I shouldn’t put the weight of my economic success on the thing I love doing the most. Not through this current format, at the very least. The early access ruined my fun, and the voting, entertaining as it was, led me to draw things I’m not all too happy with.
That’s not on my patrons, of course, they have been incredibly kind since, well, they HAVE been supporting me (big shoutout to you, guys). It’s my fault, however. I put the options there, I whored my character out… And I couldn’t handle it, much as I tried. My page became a flurry of preview pictures and a permanent reminder that I have a paywall up which… I can’t stand.
I want people to be able to enjoy what I do for free.
Fun fact is that this isn’t my first attempt either. This problem started a long time ago, when I was told that, well, I could make this a business, much before I created this account. I tried multiple times throughout the years, I had multiple Patreons and a lot of false starts.
It took me this one to understand why none of them succeeded. It’s because I will never be able to make a living out of my art. Not only because I genuinely think I’m not good enough (yet), but because I don’t want to. It’s the wrong path for me to take, at least for now. And it’s fine.
It's okay. Finding a personality as an artist, being transparent and genuine with myself... I choose to give it full precedence.
I’m not ruling the option out, but I will stop looking for succeass in that direction. If it ever happens? Good. Otherwise? I’m finding another solution to get the mula. Art is for me to speak with myself and you, cheesy as it sounds.
Now, here’s what I’m going to do: Patreon is NOT going to close, but it will be depowered. It’s going back to being a glorified tip-jar, along with Discord access to a much smaller, more modest server. But whether I work on the comic or not does not depend on it anymore, this way I can delay a page as much as I need and keep all the surprises to myself, not only regarding the comic itself. And it will NOT be advertised outside of my bio and MAYBE some completed, free-to-access work here and there.
Commissions, particularly commission streamings, are STAYING. Because I still need the cash, I don’t have my old job back yet. As a matter of fact, on the off chance that I will ever power the Patreon up again, it will probably be modeled around commissions, which are the only things I make that work around a “business model” of sorts.
As for everything else, yeah, I will go back to keep all my stuff a secret that I can enjoy and toy with until it’s out. I like it much more that way. I want to focus on the making and the creative process as much as I can.
I know this was a big read, I usually keep these thoughts to myself, but in this case… People who are giving me money are directly involved, and I think they all have the right to know what’s happening in great detail.
If you managed to get through this wall of text, first off: [b]CONGRATULATIONS.[/b] Secondly, thanks a lot. See you as soon as I have a proper idea~
10 notes · View notes
Text
Writing Update
Tumblr media
Hello All!
I'm going to try to make a habit of these so that you all know what's going on with the series and my writing in general. That way, you won't be missing out on exciting news or follower requests.
What's Going On
So many updates on the Newborn City Front. In fact, let's make a list for easy viewing.
Affinity for Pain got a new cover! That's right, she's updated and looking gorgeous. I've also started working on the rest of the covers for the series, because of course, I couldn't stop myself. You can see it here.
Burn the Bone will be looking for Delta Readers! Yes, a new term I've come up with just now for this fourth round of beta reading that the second book in the NBC series will be going through. You can learn more about BTB and if you'd like to be a Delta here.
Calling Evil Forth has words on the page! After a long spell of writer's block, the third novel actually has words and paragraphs and even a few pages! Hurray!
Newborn City has Merch! Patreon has updated its merch offerings and I've included these in several tiers. It's images of Hope, Ciaran, and Red that I drew myself. Show your support and get cool stuff! It's a win-win. You can check it out here.
I'm writing for CBR! That's right. Ya girl is writing for Comic Book Resource. I'm doing movies and gaming, with an emphasis on Dungeons & Dragons. So my fellow nerds out there I'd be so honored if you checked out the stuff by me, Rachel Johnson.
What I Want for the Future
Here are my goals for the coming year:
I want to grow my Patreon- I'd love to see some real traction with my account so that I can start creating custom writing pieces for people. I love the idea of creating my own little writing community that exchanges ideas, get to see my work first, and is rewarded with short pieces written just for them based on their unique ideas.
Get Affinity for Pain self-published- Yup. I'm taking matters into my own hands and releasing this bitch to the world! I'm going to begin the process of getting final copy edits, choosing a publishing format, and launching my book. Hopefully, if everything goes smoothly (when does that happen?), I'll have it out by my birthday, October 21st.
Move Burn the Bone through Delta reading- By the end of the year, I'd like to get BTB through its last stage of readers so that it's ready to be published once AFP has been out for a year.
Finish a first draft of Calling Evil Forth- Yes, I must finish getting the words on the page and actually complete the story so that the series can continue.
I'm very excited about the year ahead and am determined to have a good one despite everything, especially my terrible luck. I hope all my followers stay involved with me here and I'd love to see some of you over on Patreon. There's cool stuff happening at every tier so no matter which one you choose, you'll be happy.
That's all for now folks!
13 notes · View notes
hillnerd-art · 4 years
Text
bummer of an announcement
So! I got an anon asking ‘it's been a while since you posted art. are you still making art?’ Honestly? No, I’m not. Not really. Not right now.
Tumblr media
TLDR; I can’t make art right now due to medical reasons. I do not know when this will change. 
I’m still in the Potter fandom. I’ll still post art here when it is made- 
 @hillnerd​ I will be still be doing tons of the other fandom stuff.
I’ll still continue hosting fandom events as well.
If you still want to support my work/creative stuff/medical stuff with money, I have a ko-fi you can always send 'tips' to. ko-fi.com/P5P2841I
WAY more detailed information under the cut
For the past few months I’ve not been able to make art because stylus/pen-holding has been nearly impossible for me. I have a few medical conditions that sometimes make it very difficult for me to do art. Recently it's gotten worse and worse.
I have about 8+/- sketches and drawings queued up to post (need to get around to posting them!) and have a line up of commissions I am trying to get done.
After that... I honestly don’t know how much art I can guarantee I’ll make. I will always be an artist of the heart, but my body simply won’t let me continue right now. Well obviously I'm going to push through and finish all my obligations- including last commissions- but after that it's up to my body.
When/If I am making art again after this last push (and I'm certain I will eventually! I mean, this CAN'T last forever, I hope!) it'll be fandom, or working on my pride and prejudice comic etc.
I am honoring all my commission commitments!
If I still owe you one and you are concerned pm me or email me.
I am shutting down my patreon,
and won’t be taking sketch requests or commissions for the foreseeable future.
Patrons there’s a special announcement there for you.
If you still want to support my work/creative stuff/medical stuff with money
I have a ko-fi account you can always send 'tips' to.  https://ko-fi.com/P5P2841I
Tumblr media
Wait, aren't I a full-time artist???
I was, but I'm not anymore. I started working with kids back in november. I'm now going to graduate school to get a master's degree in teaching. My medical issues are part of why I'm becoming a teacher instead of remaining a full-time artist. I can't do my work anymore like I did (plus I hated so much of the non-fanon work I did! :P graphic design is the devil.)  I am very excited about teaching and genuinely love it- and hopefully my medical situation will improve and I'll be able to do art on the regular for fun/my own projects! But I can't do it on command in a timely manner anymore.
Am I staying in the fandom?
YES!  I can still type, I can still talk, I can actually do a ton of things (RP, chats, meta, fic writing etc- none of them are deeply affected by this).  I just can't hold my pen/stylus for longer than like 5-10 minutes at a time.
What's my medical situation?
I have a LOT of stuff- but the main one interfering right now is my fibromyalgia. My hands get super sensitive a lot of the time and get easily fatigued. When they are bad they go pins and needs or literally feel like I have a bad sunburn all over my hand, and any pressure for more a minute or so feels like someone grinding a knuckle into a bruise, or like you brushed a sunburn up against sandpaper. It's really intense and hurts a ton. Pushing through this pain is very hard on me.
How come I can do makeup but can't do art?
Makeup changes the brush/tool, pressure on the fingers/hand and angle of the movement a LOT. I'm very fast and it requires only a short spurt of energy to finish each part and i'm in minimal pain. Digitally drawing does not do this- the fingers/hand are stuck in the same general shape, the same muscle groups are enacted continuously, and it required much more dexterous control of the tool in my hand for a longer amount of time. That constant pressure on my hands/fingers is incredibly painful.  I am sure that with time I could relearn how to draw in a different way so this is not an issue- but I'm not going to put pressure on myself about this so I can do fan art.
THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED ME, WHETHER FOR A LONG TIME, OR A SHORT TIME. I REALLY DO APPRECIATE IT!
Again, I’m not ‘retiring from all art ever’- I’m just letting y’all know the situation- that I can’t draw much right now- and you’ll see a slower output of new work. I’m still in the Potter fandom. I’ll still post art here when it is made- it just might be a while after this last push until you see new work.
And honestly, reblogs have been drying up.
I’ve never been that popular of an artist.
Tumblr media
People rarely reblog my stuff, and if I’m going to literally push through tons of physical pain to make stuff, I’d like to have an audience that engages with it. Likes don’t spread my art out, and don’t encourage engagement. So there’s that. :P  Anyways that’s it! Bummer of an announcement to have to make but... yuuup.
Stay safe, and keep it magical
-Hilly
56 notes · View notes
twiniverse · 4 years
Text
Sooooo... this is super embarrassing. I’ve lost a few Patrons this month. That makes sense! There’s a lot going on in the world and people need to be looking out for themselves. I get it, and I don’t blame anyone for putting themselves first. In fact, I always encourage that! We talk about it a lot on Discord and I always tell people not to support me if they don’t have a lot for themselves as it is.
Tumblr media
Thing is, Patreon is my entire source of income outside of commissions. And, as I admitted before, there’s not a lot on Patreon for people to look at which means it’s not super appealing to everyone. And that makes sense, too, and is completely fair! So, I’ve had to make a decision. For the time being, the following perks will be added to Patreon! Please note, if you become my Patron this month you will not be eligible for perks until after your payment goes through at the beginning of next month. (This means if you become a Patron in June, you can collect on the July Perks Call I will post on Patreon)
$1 Patrons will be eligible for Bust Linearts for one character.
Tumblr media
$5 Patrons will be eligible for Full Body Linearts for one character.
(Example coming... soonish?)
$10 Patrons will be eligible for Full Body, Flat-coloured Pieces like my standard commissions. One character.
Tumblr media
I don’t do robots, nsfw (including gore), or Homestuck characters. For everything else, I’ll let you know when you request it if I’ll be able to do it for you or not.
I’ll try to update this with examples of the Bust and Full Body linearts soon as I have some examples to give. I’m already working on a Bust for one of May’s Patrons, so hopefully I’ll have that for you all soon.
Remember, take care of yourself, your family, your situation first! I don’t want anyone to put themselves out on my behalf. But if you enjoy the comic and want to help out a nearly starving artist [I’m lucky to have my bills paid by my sister] then please consider becoming a Patron for me. These extra perks will last until I build up enough Patrons that it becomes overwhelming to do all of them, at which point I will go back to having art perks for $10+ Patrons only. That may be a long while, though, so feel free to hold back for a few months if you have to.
https://www.patreon.com/Twiniverse
Next Twiniverse update is on Thursday, June 4th, at 5am Central US time. I’ll be working on some commissions, Gem Adopts (hopefully), and Patreon perks for a little while to build up some money, then I’ll start working on the update after that.
Thank you all for your likes, reblogs, follows, and everything else! Every bit of support, even non-monetary, means the world to me and really keeps me going. I’ve never kept up with a comic longer than one page before, but having you all here waiting patiently for my motivation to spike again really helps me. I really think I can go all the way with Twiniverse, even if it takes some years. I hope most of you will stick around with me to see it through!
49 notes · View notes
yoitscro · 4 years
Photo
Tumblr media
First thought: Homestuck^2 should've just been called Beyond Canon, and more people should call it that. 
The 2 was put on for chuckles; HS trending the day it was announced with it being a sequel spoke enough about how such a thing shant be underestimated, and why Homestuck is ABSOLUTELY more than just our small twitter crowd (and the scrap of us still on tumblr). I say that because remembering the Beyond Canon part slightly reassures me about the fact that this is a fanwork that will do some weird shit, and things I don't agree with, but isn't something that I have to subscribe to enjoying all the way with how I engage with Homestuck.
Homestuck 2 is not the canon continuation. Homestuck 2: Beyond Canon, is an OFFICIAL continuation.
Not having it on such an important stool and as the only content we all are only allowed to digest should come from both people who obsessively dislike it, and people who defensively support it. If a character says they kick babies then I can say, hey that's weird, maybe not great writing, but I can pretend they don't in my content, and i dont have to send threats or call people cishet white men for it! and, it's an absolutely great thing that we were all encouraged to create our own ideas without anyone who's influenced us to do so squinting their eyes when we actually go through with it. Glad I don't have to put this story up to the expectations of being a sequel to a 11 year, worldwide IP that's shooketh the internet landscape since it's merely optional, Death of the Author persists, and ideas aren't just dominated and revolved around the perspective of a 1% in this entire fanbase.
That said.
As an OFFICIAL continuation versus a canon one, HS2 is ok. It certainly has that fanfiction vibe, and a story it wants to tell. I can't really tell what that story is since we have like, 10 sub plots rn though. There's not a real a clear indicator on where the focus of main conflict is that connects all these stories together.
I thought that the prose in replacement of Vriska's battle was jarring, but not teeerribly surprising for the format HS2 is going for. It's more so using drawings to compliment text versus Homestuck's usual of panels being side by side with visual importance, or even itself being the one compliment. It sorta feels weird tho that it brought old fans back in with art just for them to get sneered at when they get a bit upset that there won't be main staples of art known to progress the story forward. 
Also people who mock people for “having to read homestuck” knowing there’s language barriers and struggling focus from those who’ve been use to something that was never so dense, are ridiculous.
Personally this could be solved by knowing how old flashes worked, having way more artists on the team, maybe even an art director if not already, and noting that we're not asking for the next Cascade. Rome wasn't built in a day, but Rose Ride sure was, and Homestuck’s animation is absolutely not the same as a 12-24 framed 12 minute cartoon. That, or just snuff the illustrative art as a whole since it's very clear on where the focus is.
I’m sure you’re not here trying to see my opinions on how the outer workings are though, versus plot.
Uuuuh, let's see. Yiffy's still a name I don't care to use until I eventually get tired of any of my art that do not show up in tags. This is fine and not as offensive as people are saying it is. Minors who want to cosplay this character don't have to call themselves this character. Not wanting to be one letter away from accidentally entering a very NSFW space of twitter is fine. Also the lot of people call Tavros, Tavvy.
I hope Kanaya's anger at being cucked is actually seen versus being implied through fan guesses and another character having to say she was.
Roxy needs to be more of an involved character. Where are they during all this?
Jane should have a mention of her relations to HIC being a main/bad influence on her current parallels to Alternian dictatorship.
The PRE-RETCON GROUP should have a fun one-shot update for fans who like them, since they oughta be around if they fell through the ghost hole. Most of them. The sprites that aren't Jasprosesprite should also show up too, since they're around.
Aaaaaand I think we should be extra careful going into the future when it comes to the alien rebellion. It's weird that a lot of the writers are white and toy around with concepts that can be a not so great parallel to racism. Currently not great timing rn! If the characters are going to remain aracial, but with them still doing not much to reference other non-white earth cultures or getting new hair cuts that have different textures (looking at you, Rose), we shant make the species with actual biological benefits a racism commentary. the xeno joke at least had a play on words. If any writer has happened upon this then a, please don't get mad at me again haha, and b, consider having more black writers or directional assistance on your squad. You know who they are.
In the future. I casually want the ghost from the Dream Bubbles to be shown since it's a big elephant in the room to not have a single one of them in the bg despite a load of them appearing from the ghost whole. Don't gotta give them speaking lines, especially the dancestors. I personally don't know if I want that right now.
I also hope in the future that we don't get HS content that is only going to revolve around HS2, if it's optional enough to engage with without being the only option. That's why PQ could ended a bit better for me, and why I hope it's not the main thing that's keeping Hiveswap on the backburner. I don't think it's farfetched to consider that multiple HS content could come from more than just one team; to relieve work load, but to also strengthen the idea that Homestuck can be a various amount of perspectives when it comes to the ideas fans have. The most dedicated fans leading the direction of the story is not just a handful of them. If anything, at least acknowledge the massive ass fan projects going on once in awhile to showcase the different avenues.
"Hey Cro, you sure have bitched about this alot. Do you have anything good to say? Why don't you stop reading if you hate it so much!"
Not every comment needs to be golden, love. Again, some of these decisions I eck at, but ultimately they're just words on a computer that I'm not holding anyone at gun point to do, and I'm curious to see how the story handles itself going forward, since again, it's just a fanwork. Sometimes I wish to not only see where the plot goes, but to see a writer's craft in action.
Good Things:
The Art. Again, please have more artists. It'd help so much, especially since the main one is also double timing for VE. That said, HS2 sticks out to me because of the way the color composition is used. Aside from hair and other tiny things, I haven't seen black used a lot, which makes colors pop. It's really nice to look at. I hope we get more sharper styles of character in the future, since it builds on nostalgia and makes the trolls feel much less like they're from Repiton, but I can deal with it for the most part. I also like that one panel where the omega kids and vriska are talking in the dark room, and based on where they're standing, the text aligns. Tasty as hell.
Meat and Candy still do hold neat logic in the direction the stories go. Candy, while it could be more tasteless in some areas, is chaotic and too much of a good thing. Meat is having something a little more straightforward, though I'm not sure quite yet where it's going. I always found Candy to be the part of the epilogue that actually entertained me the most, from how much of a surreal Robot Chicken skit at 3am it felt. Sometimes the jokes slapped real nice and made me wonder, going in, how is this monkeys paw gonna play out and, hopefully, make people laugh or smirk like they got a good roast at themself?
The slightly episodic feel of each update is what I wanted from the Epilogues, so it's interesting to see that play out when it comes to switching different perspectives.
The bonus updates get points for featuring characters that a lot of us have been wanting to see for ages.
Hopefully this isn't unpopular, but I think the tension of Yiffy's introduction was nicely composed and written (ignoring some of the things I wish for Jane). It leaves you with enough want to see what'll happen next time. You could also say that despite her growling and making a lot of noise, it's not actually bad writing: I see it as the audience being forced to see her in the same perspective that Jane see's her; a dog. Upon no context we're seeing the same thing while knowing things are obviously off, and once we see this character in a new environment where their personality shines, it'll have a bigger impact her own character being humanized. So I like that.
Okay, I think that's all I got. I improv wrote most of this; hopefully I won't be taken out of context since I don’t think that HS2′s writing should ultimately be a judgement of the writers as people, nor treated as if they should hold the same unhealthy work environment that Andrew forced himself to do when writing the og comic. And I'm still like, donating to the patreon and everything, lol.
[runs away]
edit: i was going to put the cw as another positive thing for the comic...but...yeaaaah.
44 notes · View notes
Text
August
Tumblr media
Warmest greeting my sweet, soft snickerdoodles <3
Last Month — July
What a shock! Last month I got up-to-date on all my physical perks, posted all my scheduled posts, and made great headway on one of my long-term, major-massive-huge projects for the blog. So progress. So success. So respectable adult! It was so cool to post two posts I had been looking forward to: The US flag one and the Dip Pen’s post :D I hope you guys enjoyed them! I also revived our old love: Recipe Wednesday! I’ll try my best to keep them up.
The aforementioned mega-huge-totally-all-the-work project is an extensive list of period accurate slang terms. If you’ve been with me a while you may know I have a gorgeous 720-page dictionary of slang (”The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English”) that is a beloved fixture of my small SRNY-related bookshelf. I have been, for a while, going through and compiling a list of terms that are historically-accurate language that would relate to both our boys, as well as Steve’s mother, Peggy, and the other Commandos. It really is a long-term project, and I am only just finishing up the C’s, but when I’m done, I’ll have the full list available to everyone for fic (and other) reference, as well as a series of themed posts!
Tumblr media
Aside from posts, I have been trying to be more sociable. I’ve been semi-active on the Put on the Suit Stony Discord server, so if you see me (Owlish Fun) over there say hi <3 I’ve really enjoyed chatting with peeps over there about fic and cannon, and you know, whatever. And obv, I’m still loving the SRNY Discord, we’ve getting some new members recently and we’ve been having some great research-related chats!
Upcoming Posts — August+
August is a little behind on the post due to some health issues I’ve been having the last couple of week (see later in this post), so I might not get as much up this month as I would like :( I alway have a number of projects on the go, so below are some you can expect to see in the next month or so:
Asthma Cigarettes — Part of Patreon Ephemera Club Perk
Art Deco (art, furniture, architecture etc — on special request)
More Recipe Wednesday!
Coney Island’s Thunderbolt — Part of Patreon Ephemera Club Perk (late)
More 1920s-1940s slang
August Ephemera Club Perks (Patreon)
This month’s perk theme is medications, and will include...
Tumblr media
ONE box for "Dr. Guild's Green Mountain Asthmatic Cigarettes" and TWO matchbooks featuring advertisements for medicines available during this time period! I was so excited when I found these boxes, and I’m really excited to share them with your guys! They have all the directions and commentary for the products, as well as price. I still have two more sets of these items for new subscribers in August, so if you would like to receive your own and support the blog, you can join the Ephemera Club tier over on the Patreon!
What’s Up with Me
So, as you may already know from my earlier post, I’ve been dealing with a rather persistent ear infection this past couple of weeks. Not only is it really painful and annoying, it also makes is nearly impossible to focus properly. As such, I’ve pretty much been unable to work on the blog for more than short bursts, and I’ve not written anything new in a while. I’m trying to be productive despite this, doing some clean-up of existing research notes and minor additions. Mostly, I’ve been working on the aforementioned vocab list of slang-terms from my dictionary. It’s just absent minded enough I can do it without too much trouble. I’ve actually made great progress actually, finishing the B’s and soon the C’s! I’m new about 1/4 the way through the dictionary! Very excite.
So yeah, I’m still under the weather. Most of the stronger pain is going thanks to a course of antibiotics, bit I’ve still only got about 20% hearing in that ear, near-constant ringing, regular discomfort and with occasional stabbing pain, and just generally feeling off thanks to having a problem ear. I guess the good news is that two doctors have said their pretty confident I don’t have COVID, so joy? It’s not fun guys — 0/10, would not recommend.
Tumblr media
Beyond all that, I also moved at the beginning of this month, and how is that not the biggest news I have?? Dang health. I actually just moved (quite literally) around the corner from my other place, so with the help of my old housemate the move was quick and easy. The house is lovely, my new human housemate is great, and my new feline housemates are good company, if crafty and mischievous. Only downside is that I am allergic to cats xD Not extremely, but i get all-day sniffles if I don’t take antihistamine daily. Totally worth it.
August is a bit of hurry-up-and-wait. I start my Masters programme next months, and nearly everything is sorted by this point. I was lucky enough to be in a small programme so I got into all my first choice courses (enrolment was at 6am on the the day I moved, such fun!). This week I’ve been giving my credit card a work-out getting supplies so I’m ready for courses, including notebooks and other stationery products. I’m pretty picky about notebooks, so it took a month to finally settle on which ones I wanted to get. I might be mad.
I guess the last life note to make is the fun mid-point I’m occupying between intentional deluded calm and constant panic over my finances. I’ve been luck enough to live in a country that is providing financial support for those effected by COVID, so I have been receiving financial aid from the Canadian government since March. However, it’s going to be coming to an end soon, and with me starting a Masters degree in Sept, and my job still not really existing because of the pandemic (I work in tourism), it’s unclear what I’m doing for money come October. I have a line-of-credit set up to cover rent/food should it come down to it, if I cannot get any government assistance and my job continues to be unable to get my work. But that will just add to future Me’s debt coming out of my Masters, and a course I’m trying to avoid. I wasn’t able to get any scholarships this year, which was a huge let-down, as I had the academic clout that should have made me a shoe-in. While it is weighing on me, there is only so much I can do about it, so I’m keeping positive and know I have the worst-case safety-net of credit if it comes to it. In the meantime, I’m working on framing some vintage prints and comic book covers to offer on Etsy — something I’ve been wanting to do for a while but kept putting off. They’ll be items at a higher sell price and hopefully will bring in a little more income from the store. I’m also looking for suggestions on what other things people would like to get out of the Patreon, things that might make it more appealing for new and existing Patrons. I have recently added a Patrons-Only perk of a Masterlist of and access to my full research notes for existing and un-finished blog topics.
Ugh, this personal section won’t be this long in future, It’s just been a very eventful month so far. Love you guys, D.
Tumblr media
[ Support SRNY through Patreon and Ko-Fi ] And join us on Discord for fun conversation! I also have an Etsy with upcycled nerdy crafts
18 notes · View notes
azs-changelog · 4 years
Text
August Newsletter
Tumblr media
To get the ball rolling...
Though we're just starting, there's been a lot happening with regards to the creative construct that is antonymZoo Studios. Having started the planning process in May 2020, antonymZoo aspires to provide a wide variety of products and services to an eclectic community of gaming, art, and roleplay enthusiasts. Earlier this month, antonymZoo suddenly went from a "planned sole-proprietorship" to a "planned LLC."  Gaining five unique team members, antonymZoo Now has a total of creators: ACN, AmbiLati, Lebi, Dapper, Kaien, and Faelen.  All of whom first met each other on the Crystal Data Center of Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV). All of us here hope you like what we create and stick around to see how antonymZoo continues to develop.
So began a nostalgicEscapade...
Starting anything online can be a long and arduous journey. With such a broad medium as the internet, we have to ask: How do you get your content noticed by the right people? And how can you stand out from others who are doing the same or similar things? For antonymZoo, it means supporting each other's interests and ideas within the team and fostering a welcoming environment for our prospective community members. We won't be putting our eggs in one basket, so to speak. To account for this, we're arranging our business structure to fit our products and services into themed groups.
The nostalgicEscapade project consists of two different Twitch streams and a group roleplay that will be turned into a Webtoon comic called, Beneath a Withered Moon. We'll post detailed updates and information on the nostalgicEscapade project and any new additions to it through the changeLog Archive on Tumblr.
Upcoming nostalgicEscapades
08/07 - There's noScape! In our next post, we'll give you detailed information on the various nostalgicEscapade projects we're planning and the current stage of each.
08/09 - August Screenshot Dump The antonymZoo creators love playing FFXIV, and here on noScape, we've got a little screenshot army to share from our time in-game.
08/11 - aZoo of Introductions Get to know the creators of antonymZoo Studios and learn more about them through the About page on our website.
08/13 - Gettin' Twitch-y Learn more about what we stream and why. We're starting with introducing our hosts and the two major portrayed by our streams.
08/15 - August Free Write We're gonna take something random. We're gonna make it a prompt. And then we're gonna post it! We cannot guarantee that fictional characters will not be harmed in the making of this post.
08/17 - Getting Organized with ClickUp So, I forced the team to use an app called ClickUp for all our scheduling and project management. Here's why.
08/19 - nostalgicEscapade: Beneath a Withered Moon Let's make a webcomic! Find out what we're planning, how you can get involved in the roleplay behind it, and what to expect from the first few episodes as we introduce our characters and cast.
08/21 - Code w/ Us: Basic HTML Page Structure ACN will create an accessible copy of the base HTML page structure that she uses.  The post will include a version of the base file that can easily be edited and duplicated for easy page creation. For beginners, the blog post will explain all the parts that make up the overall basic structure with a list of free, online resources she references regularly.
08/23 - August Art Feature The antonymZoo art team is starting strong, and this time, they come bearing selfies. Get ready to see what we've decided represents us.
08/25 - Building a Website and Putting it Online We'll finally make our website! By the time this post goes up, hopefully, it won't still look like this:
Tumblr media
08/27 - Draw w/ Us: Anatomy In this post, we're going to go over the basic structure behind the anatomy of the body.  Starting with the basics and then stretching and distorting specific characteristics to turn that into a well-defined, original character.
08/29 - Learning Online: Go to platforms Over the length of 2020, ACN has been learning on multiple online platforms such as StackSkills, Udemy, and so on. Check out the full list of what she's been using and her experiences with each.
08/31 - August Highlights Let's take a look back on what happened in August and see how far antonymZoo has gotten over the last 31 days. Have we made much progress? Are we in debt yet? Find out on the 31st!
Thanks for reading!
We, the antonymZoo team, really appreciate our readers and community. If you want to keep up with all the things we're doing here, check out antonymZoo Studios or one of our creators by liking/following/subscribing to us on:
Patreon | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | AmbiLati@Twitch | ACN@Twitch
10 notes · View notes
tarotdeckshuffle · 5 years
Note
So this is weird and silly but I wanted to request the bros somehow getting like a body switching spell cast on them and they end up switching bodies with their f!s/o?? How does that go down?? (I low key feel like Noct wouldn’t be able to not touch his boobs all the time)
Here wego! Taro is posting again!
Taglist: @idiotflowerex, @laststory1013, @sayaoqueen, @jophinabean, @mysme-already, 
If youlike what you read, please consider supporting me on Patreon or buying me a Ko-fi!
Noctis
Why iseverything you’re wearing so uncomfortable?
Immediatelyfeels his (your?) boobs.
“Wow…they’re…heavy.” 
Can’tstop touching his boobs.
But…not what he expected. 
Wantsto take off his bra because it’s uncomfortable.
You tryto stop him at first, but the whole scene is quite comical so you let it playout.
Youthought he was bad at getting your bra off? Try watching him get his own offfor the first time. 
Finallymanages.
Now istotally embarrassed.
“Theseshirts show everything”
All youcan do is nod in a knowing way. 
Hetries to cover himself with a coat. 
Laterin the day is complaining of back pains. 
“I hatebras…but I need them.” 
Mood.
Finallyyou switch back and he couldn’t be happier. 
“Inever have to wear a bra again!” 
Prompto
“Firstoff, can I touch my boobs? Your boobs? On me? But…”
He hasto know, like RIGHT away. 
“Go forit.” 
Hedoes, but he looks dismayed. 
“They’redifferent sizes…”
Noshit, sherlock. 
“Ithought…but…” 
It’slike a kid who just found out Santa isn’t real. 
You endup just walking around most of the day. 
Promptoends up getting catcalled. 
Istotally freaked out by it. 
“Whyare they doing that? Is it because something’s wrong with me and they thinkit’s funny? Are they serial killers? Are they going to do something? Should werun?” 
He literallyvoices everything that runs through your head each time it happens. 
“They’reharmless…hopefully.” 
Promptosqueaks and walks faster.
Whenyou finally switch back, he practically falls over in relief. 
“How doyou do it? The…the catcalling and the uncomfortable clothes and the makeupand the…WOW! YOU ARE JUST INCREDIBLE! No, better, you’re majestic! A queen!It takes talent to be a woman and bravery and you are just so much more thanthe world gives you credit for…”
And hekeeps rambling your praises for hours to come. 
Ignis
Firstinspects his new body, running his hands down his hips. 
“Notfully what I expected…” 
Andwhat the hell did you expect?
He gives you a mischievous smile. 
“Thatrequires further testing…”
Totallya Tiresias sort of thing.
Wantsto test this body as soon as possible. 
Otherwise,extremely poised with his new body.
Also,amazing at walking in heels. 
Gladio
Strangelypoised in the situation. 
“Huh,always wondered what it’d be like…” 
He’slooking up at you in his body, now. 
“I feelso…small.” 
Welcometo everyone else’s life. 
Triesto pick fights all day. 
Manypeople back down from an angry woman,
Butothers just laugh. 
Whichpisses him off even more. 
Helearns to fight in heels and ends up loving them. 
“They’reso versatile. You can kick with them, throw them, stab someone with them…youcan do just about everything but walk in them.” 
Forhim, touching his boobs is a bonus, but not essential. 
Whenyou switch back, the first thing he does is pick you up and cradle you. 
“It’sgood to be tall again…”
Ravus
“Theseare the clothes you choose to wear?”
Immediatelystarts judging you. 
Sure,they’re nice clothes, why?
“Theyare uncomfortable, worn out, and do nothing for your figure.” 
Andyou’re off shopping instead of investigating. 
If he’sgoing to be in your body, he’s going to look good. 
He getsyou designer clothes for every layer. 
Testingthem himself of course. 
Likelyhas more fun doing makeup than you thought he would. 
He getsto spoil you and himself in one go! It’s perfect!
“Idon’t’ like that, take it off…”
“No! Itaccentuates your curves and I find it quite attractive…”
By thetime you switch back, you’re disgusted and amazed. 
Sure,the new clothes fit and feel amazing,
But…someof them are so not your taste. 
Nyx
Can’t…stop…touching. 
Wantsto try EVERYTHING with your body!
“Erg…whydoes my stomach hurt so bad! What did you eat?” 
It’snot food, darling…it’s cramps. 
“It’swhat?! You mean it’s…THAT time of the month?!”
Hethinks the world is falling apart. 
Yes,dear, it is. But you’ll be fine. Just tough it out. 
Buthe’s a big baby about it. 
Superawkward with tampons and pads. 
“Everythinghurts and I’m bleeding. That statement should mean that I just came from abattle but NO! It’s a monthly thing for you?!” 
All youcan do is shrug and laugh at him through the day. 
Whenyou switch back he couldn’t be happier.
“I’mnever screwing with women again, you’re damn near made of pain. Men’s bodieshurt when they get hurt, yours hurt regularly just for fun.” 
Ardyn
“Ohh!This again!” 
Wait…again?!
Strutsin heels, looking absolutely fantastic. 
Makesyour body look better than you do!
“Whatdo you say you let me find out what YOU like best?” 
He sayswith a wink, pulling you close. 
Takesyou forever to figure out how to switch back because he has to get bored withyour body first. 
Afteryou do, your relationship takes on a whole new level of pleasure. 
274 notes · View notes
clevercatchphrase · 4 years
Text
2019 year in review
So… The 2010’s are almost over. Huh. What a decade it’s been. Hard to comprehend how much has changed in 10 years. I can barely believe that I was in high school at the beginning of this decade, and now I’m a college graduate with 2 degrees who’s been working at the same job for the last 3 years. But trying to summarize the past 10 years in a single post is a good way to give myself an existential crisis, so let’s not do that! Instead, let’s just focus on 2019 because there has been more than enough shit that’s happened to me in this year to talk about.
PART 1 OF 2: 2019 AND 2020 GOALS AND RESOLUTIONS
Huh, looking back through my archives, I apparently didn’t make a tumblr post about my goals this year. I definitely had some, though. Lemme list ‘em off real quick, and then we’ll go through them point by point.
1)      Pay off all my student loans 2)      Finish some song comics 3)      Make art for my Redbubble account 4)      Finish the first rough draft/script of a game I wanted to make 5)      Practice ASL 6)      Sew some stuffed animals 7)      Finish some fan fictions 8)      Work on Ghost Switch 9)      AMVs 10)   Do some original writing 11)   Make illustrations for my fan fictions
Okay, first off, the student loans. I was actually SO CLOSE to successfully completing this one bUT THEN MY CAR HAD TO BE A WHINEY PISS BABY AND HAVE ITS ALTERNATOR DIE ON ME WHILE I WAS ON THE HIGHWAY AND THEN A BLOW OUT THREE WEEKS LATER.
GOD, if I had to summarize this year in two words, for me it would be “Car troubles”. I swear I spent more on auto repair in the first third of this year than I ever have just freakin’ OWNING a car. All four of my tires had to be replaced, my alternator failed and my car literally just SHUT OFF while I was driving, and I was barely able to coast into a gas station. Both my front breaks and rear breaks were worn down the metal and I only learned this when my car was barely able to stop after I had to slam the petal down full force!  I went in for an oil change, and they found some problems and then I didn’t get my car back for three days! I don’t even like owning a car! I hate driving! I hate my country’s refusal to provide universal, free public transportation! I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS!
Oh-kay… number 2. Finish some song comics. I didn’t finish any. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t work on them. I have made tiny progress, but that’s certainly better than no progress. One of these song comics I hope to be realizes is going to be a collab with one of my friends. It’ll be a long-time coming as it’s pretty low priority for the both of us, but if anyone else out there was disappointed with KH3’s ending, we’re gonna have ya’ covered… With SONG!
3. Make some redbubble art. I actually did this one! Not in the way I expected, but I added (technically) 3 new designs to my redbubble in the middle of the year. If you like butterflies and dragons, I got some product for you~!
Number 4, finish a script for a game I want to make. I… thought about this. I thought about this a lot, but I never put pen to paper, so… oops. It almost happened! I debated making this my main writing project for NaNoWriMo this year, but ended up having more inspiration for another story. Maybe next year? (god, I hope not. I don’t want to wait a full year just to write something)
Number 5, practice ASL. I just straight up didn’t do this and I only have myself to blame. Still keepin’ up that Danish Duolingo streak, though. 4 years going strong and not a day missed yet.
Number 6, sew some stuffed animals. Again, another one I just straight up didn’t do, but I have an excuse of trying to save money while my car crashed and burned in every other sense except literal this year. Hopefully 2020 will be different. I’ll definitely be able to pay off this last loan within the first half of 2020, and then I can start saving for whatever I want to buy.
Finish some fan fictions was number 7, and I did this! Well, I only finished, 1, but it was a story I’ve been working on for over 3 years, and it came out to over 200 THOUSAND words long, which is the longest thing I’ve ever written, and I’m quite proud of myself. Now that the big story is out of the way, and I’ve gotten into a good rhythm of working on Ghost Switch, maybe I can squeeze in some short writing sessions more frequently. (either that, or just wait for my car to break down again and then go on a writing spree in a pepboys. The lord and the fan fic discord know that’s solely why I finished my other fic this year)
Speaking of Ghost Switch, working on it was a goal this year too, and I did that! I kept it up all year and took a vacation in November and it was wonderful. While the major plot points have been in place since before I started drawing, I still need to script each arc beyond Snowdin, but hey, by the time we get there, it’ll be 2022 so I got time. (Note, don’t do this, kids. Script your stories and comics thoroughly before publishing. The road I’m on is paved with misery and pain and it will only end in tears unless I change lanes soon)
Number 9, amvs. Do people make AMVs anymore? Idk… the last one I made was... Jesus, 5 years ago? (it was a gravity falls/fall out boy crossover, if you were curious) I’ve been wanting to do 2 more for just as long, but in order for me to do that, I’d have to spend time re-watching the shows to find the footage, and then actually edit them together, and I just don’t…. feel like it. Maybe someday, but not any day soon.
10; do some original writing. I did this! For nanowrimo! I wrote the first draft of some original fiction I’ve been planning for a year or two now and it completely sucks! But it’s on paper now and I’m happy. Will I revise and edit it? Sure, but not for a while. I want to let it sit and forget about it and look at it with new eyes months from now so I can be sure I can make it better when time comes to rewrite.
11, make illustrations for my fan fics. Now that You Monster is done, I want to go back and add pictures to it. I didn’t do any this year, but I did keep a list of scenes I wanted to draw, so I have plenty of ideas to do as warm up sketches next year~ I kinda want to stream them~
So, that was 11 goals, and I successfully fulfilled 4 of them! That’s! Not a very good ratio… QmQ So, goals for 2020. Some I’m gonna keep from this year, some I’m gonna drop and some I’m gonna add. In short I would like to,
1)      Finish paying off that last student loan 2)      Put more stuff on my redbubble 3)      Illustrate my own fan fics 4)      Sew at least one stuffed animal 5)      Make an enamel pin 6)      Read one new book a month 7)      Write one page a day/Complete at least one new fan fic 8)      Learn Python or C# for the game I want to make 9)      Finish fully scripting Ghost Switch 10)   Boost my patreon
Most of these I think are pretty self-explanitory, but I’ll go into detail just a bit because I’m on a roll and typing my thoughts helps me feel less alone in the middle of the night when you’re super tired and you know you should probably go to sleep, but the toddler in you is throwing a tantrum and doesn’t wanna go to sleep just yet, but you can’t fight the progression of time either way.
Number 1- I should be able to reach this goal by the end of March. End of June at the absolute latest. Once that goal is met, my secret new year’s resolution will be unlocked as well!
Number 2- I want to put more art of my OCs on redbubble. These OCs are tied to the game I want to make. There’s already some art of them up there, but I want at least one piece for each character.
Number 3- Mostly for You Monster. Embrace the cardinal rule of fan fic and apply it to fan art. If you want to read about see art about certain ideas, scenarios, or what-ifs, you gotta make it yourself.
Number 4- I have 3 potential ideas to sew. One is definitely leagues easier than the other two and will probably be chosen if/when I have the time and materials.
Number 5- This year I got really, REALLY into the idea of making enamel pins. Unfortunately it’s a pretty big investment (like, $350 to make 100 pins you  might not even sell). If this happens, it’ll probably be towards the end of the year, and if I get enough interest. I’m currently torn between making an original enamel pin and one based off Undertale. We’ll just have to see where this goes.
Number 6- Back in 2018 when I paid off one of my many student loans, I rewarded myself by spending over 200 dollars in used books. All these books had a theme; they were focused on dragons because I have a problem. I have not yet read a single one of these books I have bought, and I would like to fix that. I have, like, 20 unread dragon books, and even if I only read 12 out of 20, I would consider that an amazing accomplishment and money well spent.
Number 7- I currently have about 8 different WIPs I could work on. (well, I don’t know if I can even call them wips. More like, a general idea and a title written down.) I want to build good writing habits, and if I can write just 200 words a day, hell, even 200 words a week and just one of my 8 stories done, I would consider this goal met.
Number 8- I’m torn between making my game in unity or ren’py. I know jack shit about both. Ren’py is more user friendly, but unity will allow me more customization. (Lol, can you guess what kind of game I want to make yet?)
Number  9- I really just want the full story to be done and written incase anything goes horribly terribly wrong in my life and I find myself unable to continue making ghost switch in comic form. Then at least I can finish the story by other means, you know?
Number 10- It always surprises me every month when I get that patreon email saying I got paid. Sure, I don’t even make double digits on it, but it still awes me enough to know that people out there like my work enough to throw me a tip. I can’t thank my patrons enough for supporting me and I hope to one day be in such a good place I can update my comic/song comics/writing frequently enough without need for goals or milestones. But until that magical day arrives, money is always a great incentive for anything, I suppose. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 ALRIGHT. PART 2 OF 2: SHIT THAT HAPPENED TO ME IN 2019
Cheesus crust what a year. This year started off great! Back in late January Kingdom Hearts 3 FINALLY released, and let me tell you a little story. Back in the summer of 2006 I was a 13 year old middle schooler with no way of making money other than by doing house hold chores at a rate of 25 cents a task. A few weeks ago, I had a sleep over at a friend’s house and they let me play this weird game called “Kingdom Hearts” and god, I was instantly hooked on it. That summer, I did over 800 chores, enough to earn myself 200$ and buy myself a playstation 2 (just in time for the ps3 to come out, gg me) The only games I had for the ps2 were KH1, 2, Re:CoM and Okami, and I beat them all… except Okami. Miffed that the PS3 wouldn’t allow for backwards compatibility, little 13-year-old me made a promise. I looked myself in the mirror and said “I will not buy the next playstation console until KH3 comes out, AND BOY that was probably a good choice for me to make with my level of gaming. I’m even less of a casual gamer than the average casual gamer, but I have been waiting 13 years for this piece of closure, and I even told my friends and family that “the day Kingdom Hearts 3 comes out is the day I will buy a playstation 4”. My dad apparently thought this was the funniest shit, because he literally took the day off from work that Friday to drive me on base to get the game and console (he thought it would be less crowded than a regular walmart, I suppose). I paid $400 on a ps4 pro while he bought me the game. Again, I have an impecible sense of timing seeing as the PS5 is now right on the horrizion, but just like before, I’m not buying a new console until the next KH game is released. See you in 2045, sony~. While I was at the gamestop on base, I also picked up Okami HD and The Last Guardian. For all of February and even early March, I took my time playing through KH3. And…! It was the best disappointment I’ve ever played. After a month away from gaming, I started The Last Guardian and finished it in a couple weeks. I love trico and would die for him, but trying to get 100% completion on that game is udder insanity. Okami, HD, however… again after a month break after finishing TLG, I started replaying Okami. I think I had only managed to get about halfway through the game before I just… stopped playing it on my ps2 version. I am currently SO CLOSE to getting a 100% on the ps4 version. In fact, I’ve beaten the game. I only (techinically) need 2 more trophies to be done; 1st, escape the water dragon without being eaten, 2nd, I need to beat that dumb stupid race with Kai, in order to get the last bead on my rosary, as well as the top dog trophy. I hate her so much. I hate this race so much. It’s awful and bad.
Flash forward to December! Earlier this month I was at Barnes and Noble, buying myself a planner for 2020. I exit the store and notice that there’s a gamestop across the street. For shits and giggles I go inside to look at their game selection, and I find KH 1.5 and 2.5. Now, my PS2 died a few years back (it just won’t read my discs anymore, I don’t know why) and I haven’t been able to replay any of my other kingdom hearts games since. If you had seen me the day I finished kingdom hearts 3, after the ending credits rolled, you would have heard me say “Man…. I wish I could play kingdom hearts 2 again”. AND NOW I CAN, ALONG WITH BBS which I had never even played yet, but knew the story of. I’ve restarted playing kh1, and I was so happy to hear that familiar music when I booted the game up for the first time. While at the game stop, I also picked up Rime and Tearaway, two games that had looked interesting to me. At the time of writing, I’ve finished Rime and am 25% done with tearaway. Rime was…. An interesting experience. I learned about it through Jacksepticeye’s channel a couple years back and thought the art style was enticing. For a super casual gamer like me, I found the puzzles just the right level of challenging and exploring was a blast! The music gave me VERY strong Princes Mononoke vibes, but the overall story left something to be desired. Overall I had fun, and enjoyed completing this game to 100%. Now for tearaway. Can I just say this game is super fucking adorable? I know the original was on the ps vita and the gameplay there was arguably more diverse and imaginative, but this game is just so fucking cute I don’t care?? ALSO, this game’s sound track is ABSOLUTELY incredible and I’ve only heard the first fourth of it! Listen to The Orchards, Pig Riding, and Gibbet Hill Pilgrimage for a taste of their wonderful beats and fantastic use of string and woodwinds! God, I’m so excited to get some more games in 2020. I’m proud to say I currently own more ps4 games than I ever did with my ps2 (and now the majority AREN’T Kingdom Hearts titles!), and I’m still hoping to play Journey, The Witness, and Abzu before everything becomes ps5.
What else happened to me this year. Oh, I went to a doctor for, like, the first time in seven years. I also had my blood drawn for the first time ever, and the nurse said the most disturbing thing to me while she did it. Now, whenever I get shots, I refuse to look. I did that here. So she thought it would be appropriate to say to me “Can you feel your blood leaving your body?” Lady… You can clearly see I am uncomfortable with what is happening here. Why, of all the things you could say, did you choose to say that. Unfortunately, while my doctor is nice, she keeps wanting to run tests on me, that I just cannot afford with my current salary, and my monthly insurance is about to go up to 200$ a month, so I’ve cancelled my next appointment with them, and don’t plan to go back until it’s absolutely necessary. Capitalism is fun, guys. Preventative healthcare is for wusses.
I started going to a chiropractor on a monthly basis. Story time- I don’t know when it started, but sometime late last November I began to notice that I had a headache that just... wasn’t... going away? And each day it was starting to get a little worse. It made it hard for me to find a comfortable position to sleep, it made it hard for me to be in bright areas or move fast. So I said to myself “Okay, if this headache persist through the month of december, then something is proooobably wrong and I should go see someone about it. And hoo-boy were thing wrong with me. By the time this January rolled around, I couldn’t even stay on my feet for more than a few hours without it physically hurting to just BREATHE. So I started going to this chain called The Joint (A+ name, I know). THey aksed me “How are you doing?” I said “I’m in pain” and they said “We can help fix that!”. I’ve only been to a chiropractor once before in my life a few years back after my freshmen year of college because I began to notice my hips weren’t able to support me? LIke, I would lie on my back, and I couldn’t push my hips up when my feet were flat on the floor. I also couldn’t climb anything steep, because my legs just couldn’t push me up if my knee had to bend more than 90 degrees when I lifted my leg up. (Turned out both my hips were apparently out of place). This time only one of my hips were out of place (which they fixed. they said one of my legs was an inch “longer” than the other because I had been leaning all my weight on one leg when I stand). But two of my ribs were apparently “Stuck” which was why it was hurting for me to just breathe, and one of my shoulders was missaligned too, causing one of my trap muscles to constantly be streched, which was pulling on my skull, and causing the headache. Anyway, after they popped all my bones back into place, I still felt terrible, but by god, that night was the first time in weeks I was able to sleep without a migrane. A chiropractor can’t magically heal your arthritis, or fibro, but I definately think they have merit to keeping your posture good and helping your body with things like circulation. 10 outa 10, would recomend. It’s all the fun of getting your neck snapped without the dying!
Earlier this month I got together with two of my friends and we baked Christmas cookies. It was a lot of fun, as well as a great learning experience. A member of my family has a gluten allergy, so we used rice flour for most of the cookies. We learned this is a bad idea! The cookies will just fall apart! A few member’s in one of the friend’s family have nut allergies. Other friend and I knew this and were careful to avoid cookie recipes with nuts, bUT THEN COMPLETELY FORGOT THAT ALMOND MILK AND ALMOND EXTRACT COUNT AS NUT. IN FACT, ALMOND EXTRACT IS PURE CONCENTRATED NUT JUICE AND WE FELT SO BAD FOR ALMOST ACCIDENTALLY POISONING THE FAMILY.
Earlier this year me and these same friends took a field trip to Hobby Lobby and just dicked around the store for a couple of hours. It was super fun, 11 outa 10, would recommend, a great date idea for your artsy S.O.
Back in May I went to a wedding for the first time in my life. (well, not true, but the first one I could remember) we left at 5am, drove 5 hours to get there, hung out at a zoo and spent the night in a la quinta before the wedding day. I slept on the bathroom floor because my mom was snoring too loud in the main room and keeping me awake, and the rest of the day was just spent me trying to keep myself together because I was pissed off and tired.
Other than all of that, nothing really major happened to me this year. I guess one more thing I’ve tried to do this year is started the process of breaking certain internet addictions so I can use my free time for more personal projects. Seriously, I found myself watching way too much youtube and following blogs that didn’t even make me happy. I had a personal intervention with myself where I sat down and asked myself, “why do you watch these videos and youtubers? Why do you follow these blogs? Do you really enjoy their content? Do you really care? If you stopped watching/following them, would you even notice?” After critically thinking it over, I’ve found myself unfollowing several channels and blogs and suddenly I feel so much happier. I thought I would miss it, but I realized I didn’t really care if I saw their content or not. I wasn’t missing much. And now I feel like I have more time to draw, read and write. If you think you spend too much time consuming and not enough time creating, I suggest you try and de-clutter your internet habits as well. It’s done wonders to un-fuck my headspace.
And… well, that about sums up my year. How are your holidays going? Anything fun, exciting, dramatic happen to you this year? I hope your new year is warm and safe! Good night, everybody!
12 notes · View notes
goodticklebrain · 5 years
Photo
Tumblr media
Q&A August: Me, Myself, and I
Hey everyone! I’m back from my break! Well… sort of. Various personal crises and professional obligations have reared their heads, and I need to take some time to work them all out. Fortunately, I have lots of amazingly generous Shakespeare friends who have agreed to help me out by answering some (hopefully) fun questions about Shakespeare and themselves.
Now, I try never to ask anyone to do something I would not do, so I’m going first.
1.  Who are you? Why Shakespeare
I'm Mya Gosling, the artist and author of Good Tickle Brain, the world's foremost and possibly only stick figure Shakespeare webcomic. (But, since you're reading this, you probably already knew that...) My love of Shakespeare started when I was around 10 years old and my father showed me the Laurence Olivier film of Henry V. Since then I've been fortunate enough to see almost all of Shakespeare's plays performed live. For the past six years I've been sharing my love of Shakespeare with people through the incongruous medium of stick figure comics. My attitude towards Shakespeare can be summarized in two main points: a) he's a lot of fun, and b) don't take him too seriously.
2.  What moment(s) in Shakespeare always make you laugh?
In the middle of the chaotic final scene of Cymbeline, in which about a dozen improbable dangling plot threads are being improbably resolved by a series of improbable revelations, the Doctor pipes up with the line "O gods! I left out one thing..." It's a line that, while not funny in and of itself, is absolutely hysterical in context and never fails to make me laugh.
3. What's a favorite Shakespearean performance anecdote?
I saw a local university production of Much Ado About Nothing where the actor playing Claudio had come down with a nasty stomach bug. There were no understudies, so the actor playing the Sexton was drafted to step in. He wandered around the stage, clutching the script binder like a life raft and exuding a genuine insecurity that made his hapless Claudio much more sympathetic than usual. I spent the entire first two acts waiting eagerly for Beatrice to say "Speak, Count, 'tis your cue." It was an appropriately cathartic meta-theatrical moment.
4. What's one of the more unusual Shakespearean interpretations you've either seen or would like to see?
I was lucky enough to see the RSC's current production of The Taming of the Shrew, which is set in an Elizabethan matriarchy with an almost entirely gender-flipped cast (Petruchio is played as a woman by a woman, Kate is played as a man by a man, etc.). It was very well done, and surprisingly thought provoking on a number of levels that I did not expect. Even the way the costumes were used, with the women's large dresses not being seen as encumbrances but rather a means for them to physically take up more space (i.e. woman-spreading), was fascinating. I’d like to see more productions play around with the gender of characters and see what effect it has.
5. What's one of your favorite Shakespearean "hidden gems"?
He’s not hidden, and he’s definitely not a gem, but I’ve had a character crush on Hotspur ever since I first saw Henry IV part 1  back in 2001. Objectively, he’s a totally thoughtless and impulsive jerk, but he’s so charismatic and compelling and entertaining that he just completely carries me away. I’m mature enough now to realize he’d be absolutely terrible for me, but I’m still carrying a tiny torch for that gunpowder Percy.
6. What passages from Shakespeare have stayed with you?
This is awfully cliched, but one of the first bits of Shakespeare that I committed to memory was the opening chorus from Henry V: "O for a muse of fire, etc. etc." How can you not fall in love with a paean to the imagination? The ability to conjure something out of nothing has always excited and inspired me, and this speech so perfectly encapsulates the imaginative and collaborative magic not only of theatre, but of any creative profession. (The Salic Law speech, which I memorized when I first started this comic back in 2016, has also stayed with me, mostly because it's a great party piece, if also an unfortunately effective way to get people to punch you in the face.)
7. What Shakespeare plays have changed for you?
From first impression to most recent impression, the play that has changed the most for me over the years is The Winter's Tale. I really didn't like it the first time I saw it: Leontes was obviously an irredeemably horrible character, so I didn't see why I should care about him getting an undeserved happy ending, plus the Bohemia bits were interminable and pointless. However, each successive time I've seen it, a little bit more of its magic has been unlocked for me. I still think the Bohemia bits are interminable and pointless, and that Autolycus is an immensely overrated and tiresome character, but the hope and forgiveness permeating the latter half of the play is starting to melt my stony heart. I still don't love it, and I may never love it, but I appreciate it more and more every time I encounter it.
8. What Shakespearean character or characters do you identify the most with?
Recently I've identified very strongly with Peter Quince. All he wants to do is entertain people, but nothing quite works out the way he's planned, and it looks like everything is going to be a disaster, and he's very worried and stressed out all the time, but in the end he (inadvertently) produces a work of comic genius. I relate very strongly to all of that. I have aspirations to be a Beatrice, but honestly compels me to admit that I am not.
9. Where can we find out more about you? Are there any projects/events you would like us to check out?
If you’re reading this, you already know all about me! But if you’re interested in supporting my work, head over to Patreon. Also, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, if you happen to be on any of those platforms.
COMING THURSDAY: You’ve almost certainly seen him in (very fast) action, making a professional fool of himself. It’s my Comedy Fairy Godfather!
31 notes · View notes
marshmallowgoop · 5 years
Text
Studio Trigger Live Drawing with Mago (03/13/19): Transcript (Non-Verbatim)
Tumblr media
Studio Trigger streamed their fourth Twitch live drawing at 19:00 JST on March 13, 2019. The stream features Space Patrol Luluco character designer Mago drawing Trigger-chan from Trigger Girls and Luluco from Space Patrol Luluco, as well as a Q and A with producer Hiromi Wakabayashi and translator Tatsuru Tatemoto. A full video of the stream is available on Twitch here.
I’ve put together a transcript of the stream for anyone curious about the Q and A. While the transcript is not verbatim, all the meaning should still be captured.
Transcript
Tatsuru Tatemono (Tattun): Okay. Thank you for joining us on our fourth live-drawing session. We have Mago as our guest tonight. I’m aware that it’s very late for a lot of our followers. Thank you for stopping by. It’s 3:00 am in Seattle. Thank you very much for stopping by.
Again, Mago is our guest animator or guest illustrator today. As usual, Hiromi Wakabayashi is here as our MC. I, Tattun, will be doing the translation and moderation for the stream tonight. Tonight, we are having Mago draw Studio Trigger’s mascot character, Trigger-chan. I believe we had a special request from Mago that she wanted to draw Luluco as well. So, I think, uh, we would like…
Mago says that it’s a pleasure to meet you. She says that her name is Mago the Illustrator, and she’ll do her best today. Hiromi Wakabayashi says konnichiwa, as usual.
I’m sorry if it looks dark. It’s our camera. We’re going to be focusing on the illustration part a little bit more, so hopefully, the darkness won’t be too bothersome. I guess Hiromi brought a pre-release item from Promare that he was quality checking.
I’m very sorry. We’ll have our audio pumped up a little bit more.
So, we noticed that there’s a little glare on Mago’s tablet. We’re going to try to get rid of the glare so that you have a better view of how she is working with her illustration. Today, Mago is working with SAI 1, the first version of SAI. I believe she’s using the Cintiq 16, the newest tablet by Wacom. Otherwise, she’s using a wireless keyboard and mouse. When we upload the video on YouTube, I’ll make sure to cover all the specifics in the comments section.
Okay. So, I think we will get started with the Q and A session like usual. However, before we do so, note that this stream is brought to you by all the lovely support we receive from Patreon. Thank you. If you’re interested in becoming a supporter as well, the link is provided on our Twitter page. Please check it out if you’re curious. We try to provide digital rewards as frequently as possible, so if you’re interested in those things, do definitely give our Patreon a glance when you have some time!
So, for the people who are unfamiliar, Mago usually works on a lot of Studio Trigger’s SD character designs. She’s been a part of every single project except for DARLING in the FRANXX, which doesn’t really count because DARLING in the FRANXX is a collaboration work and not a 100% genuine Trigger show. Mago wasn’t part of Inferno Cop, either. Inferno Cop is a prestigious Trigger title, Hiromi says, so she needs more experience with Studio Trigger. We’re receiving some comments that Mago’s not a part of Turning Girls as well.
Well, that was the introduction. Let’s get started with the Q and A session. Again, if you’re a part of our Patreon, you will have the opportunity to cast a vote on what kinds of questions will be asked and what kinds of illustrations will be drawn during these streams.
Hiromi and Mago are explaining that Mago’s drawing is an interesting line-up of characters. You don’t usually see these two characters together because they’re obviously the same character.
I have a question from Paul Schmidt: “Mago-san, I noticed you're only credited as the character designer and with ending illustrations on Space Patrol Luluco in Anime News Network's (ANN) encyclopedia, yet on your Twitter profile introduction, you list Kill la Kill, so I was wondering how you were involved with Kill la Kill? The reason I ask is because I personally submitted the staff and company credits to the ANN encyclopedia page for Kill la Kill, and your name (まご) is not credited in any episode, at least according to the corresponding page on the アニメスタッフデータベース [staff database].”
So, Mago says that she wrote Kill la Kill on her profile because she was responsible for one of the back illustrations for the Blu-ray/DVD jacket and was also in charge of the small SD characters for merchandise. That’s why she wrote about her involvement in Kill la Kill on her Twitter profile.
What is an SD character? I think SD stands for “Small Deformed” or “Super Deformed.” I’m not too sure. If that’s not the term used in English, I’m very sorry. Please tell me the term used in English. It’s Super Deformed?
So, Hiromi says that it’s called Super Deformed or SD in Japan because it started out originally from Gundam or Macross, which had a mini-mech series called “Super Deformed.” Hiromi suggests that you should stop calling the designs “chibi” and use the term “SD” because that’s the term that the proper anime industry uses! [Laughing.]
I guess Mago is going to take her time on the color and make a very Canvas illustration.
We have a question from Chen Luohan (I’m sorry if I mispronounce your name): “Hi Trigger! The production of anime fascinates me. What is the pipeline in the production of an anime series? What do you consider first when starting out with the ideas? Story? Character? Settings? Thank you very much!”
Wakabayashi says that they come up with a concept and foundation for what kind of series they want to make first. The concept might be something very, very broad, like family love or family bonding. Imaishi might be simpler; he might just want an anime with drills and that’s it. Once Trigger has that keyword—for example, Gurren Lagann would be “drill”—Trigger gets together to brainstorm how to make an interesting story from the one keyword, like “drill” in the case of Gurren Lagann.
Mago says she’s never put too much thought into her style formation. She generally likes drawing illustrations with very few shadows and lines. Before she knew it, she came up with her current style.
Hiromi noticed that Mago likes to clean up or refine her lines. She says that she cleans up where she feels like it! Mago says that she thought it might be more interesting for the viewers if she’s working on various parts of the illustration rather than concentrating on one part.
Mago and a few of our studio staffs went to Comic Fiesta, a decently large event in Malaysia. The event was a few months ago, I believe, during the Christmas season, but we were talking about how it’s actually summer during winter in Malaysia, so the event was very warm.
All three of us are saying that if we’re invited to a local event, we’ll most likely come out if it’s not conflicting with our schedule. This year, we want to try various places and go outside of the States more, to anywhere in Europe, Asia, etc.
We have an interesting question from EiGi696969: “Mago, do you have any interest in directing? Would you like to direct an anime one day?”
Mago says that she has no interest. She is a manga artist as well. She explains that when she draws a manga, she has to do everything; she has to come up with the story and concepts, which is like directing. It’s a lot of work. She doesn’t think she enjoys it too much.
For example, Mago says that it’s hard to motivate herself when she’s coming up with a story because she wants to... If she’s told to draw a manga, she tries to draw a character she’s currently interested in drawing. It’s hard for her to draw a pre-existing character that she’s told to draw.
A while ago, Mago was drawing a series of manga that featured Studio Trigger. The manga was about the daily nonsense of Studio Trigger. I think it was published through Utek Magazine [sp?]. Mago likes doing that kind of diary-type manga, she thinks.
We have a question from reportas1: “What are your favorite characters that you have drawn?”
Mago enjoys drawing Luluco the most. She also enjoys drawing Mako from Kill la Kill.
Wakabayashi says that they receive a lot of questions about DARLING in the FRANXX, asking if they are satisfied with the story and ending. 
Studio Trigger’s general stance, as a studio, is that they basically try to give an idea to the director. The director, Nishigori Atsushi, usually comes up with a concept or idea that he wants to do. The studio gives him feedback and sees if he likes the feedback. The director obviously makes the final call. It’s very hard to say if Studio Trigger “liked” the ending sequence of DARLING in the FRANXX or not, Wakabayashi says.
Sorry, there was a misunderstanding! We’re not talking about the ending sequence. Wakabayashi did the production for the ending sequence of DARLING in the FRANXX, so he’s super satisfied with that! If the question is about the how the story was wrapped up, Wakabayashi says that the ending is the director’s choice, and he doesn’t think that it’s right of Studio Trigger to comment on how the story wrapped up.
There’s a question from Patreon’s Bill Erak: “How involved is Trigger in the dubbing process of their shows? I've heard of directors that sometimes get involved in dubs, but that's more of an exception. I ask because KLK had an amazing dub, Luluco's was pretty dope too, while LWA's sucks. Are those things left to whoever distributes it on the west? Can't you, Tattun, maybe check the dubs, and if they suck, tell them so that they change them?”
So, I thought this was a pretty interesting question. To this day, I don’t think many Japanese studios or production committees give much thought into this matter. Studio Trigger obviously doesn’t check or even receive a notice for a revision of the dubbing process. Wakabayashi says that he thinks that, if they made a request to the dubbers and distributors overseas to check on the dubbing process and auditions, they might be able to comment. However, distributors don’t even ask if the studio is satisfied with their work, so Wakabayashi guesses that it’s just very unnatural—or there’s no previous incidence—for a studio or production committee to comment on the dubbing process.
If given the opportunity, Studio Trigger would like to direct their dubbing as well, though, Wakabayashi says. Wakabayashi says that he would like Inferno Cop to be dubbed by Leonardo DiCaprio! [Laughing.]
tigermac from Twitch asks: “Mago, how many sketchbooks have you filled up since the start of your art career?”
Mago says that she doesn’t have a sketchbook! I guess she doesn’t really practice. She likes to doodle on her PC, and if it turns out well, she’ll share it on her Twitter. If not, she’ll usually toss out the files.
Whatever illustration or doodle Mago feels satisfied with is updated on her Twitter, so please check out her Twitter. I’ll post her Twitter on the YouTube upload as well, so please check that out if you’re interested, but I’m sure it’s not too difficult to find Mago’s Twitter if you just Google “Mago.” We have a couple of viewers posting Mago’s Twitter now!
I guess Mago is having a little trouble drawing Trigger-chan. Mago doesn’t draw Trigger-chan too often. She’s going to redo the drawing from the rough draft portion, she says.
There’s a question from Patreon, from Harry Bonyari (very sorry if I mispronounce your name): “I know you’re a big fan of sneakers. How do you let your interest in fashion inform your work?”
Mago says that she’s not too keen on fashion, but she does like sneakers. When she feels like drawing particular sneakers, she’ll usually draw the character in some kind of cool clothes to go with the sneakers. However, she doesn’t know if she lets her choice of fashion affect her work too much.
There’s a question from Cesar A. Morillo: “Is Inferno Cop Season 2 coming either this year or next?”
There’s no ETA for Inferno Cop, says Wakabayashi. It’s ready when it’s ready. If Studio Trigger focused on Inferno Cop, they would have to delay Promare, and Wakabayashi is sure that you don’t want that! He’s sure that you’d prefer to watch Imaishi’s and Amemiya’s new actual series instead!
Wakabayashi says that the studio has a lot of ideas for Inferno Cop 2, though. In every creative meeting for other projects, they usually get derailed and talk about Inferno Cop. They are waiting for the opportunity to utilize their ideas. Maybe Mago’s SD designs will be featured in the new Inferno Cop season, Wakabayashi says! [Laughing.]
There’s a question from Ben Veltri: “For Mago: In terms of drawing ability, how do animators and illustrators differ? Do you think illustrators are better?”
Okay, so we got some pretty interesting answers! This was a question from Patreon, again.
So, I guess, the question was, in terms of drawing abilities, how do animators and illustrators differ, and which is better? Hiromi and Mago said that the two jobs are different and can’t be compared; different skills are involved. An animator has to draw a character or object from every angle and in motion. An illustrator is meant to express with one single illustration, which might be hard for an animator to do—to convey a message with a single illustration. It’s very hard to compare. Mago says that she feels like it’s harder for an animator to acquire their set of skills, though.
EiGi696969, your question is interesting. It doesn’t hurt to answer your question twice. The question is, “What is your stance on piracy? Does it cost the studio any money when people pirate their anime? Do you think it’s a necessary evil? Do you think it’s something that will go away or get worse in the future?”
I guess Hiromi is saying that nowadays, there are so many different streaming services that everyone can watch what people in Japan can watch. In the past, that wasn’t the case, though. A lot of anime weren’t made available for much of the anime community. Those people had to illegally download, view, or stream anime elsewhere. Also, those people supported the community. Hiromi does agree that piracy is a necessary evil (or used to be).
Hiromi is speaking about an ideal situation, but even if you did watch Studio Trigger’s works illegally, he says to please watch it on a legit streaming service as well because it leads to success for the general industry.
We got a question from faux_wizard from Reddit, I believe. By the way, thank you for your help a while back. The question is: “How did Mago end up working alongside Trigger?”
Okay, so this goes pretty back in the days. Wakabayashi was working on... There’s this idol unit called Emitsu Private Middle School [sp?]. Uh, I’m sorry. There’s this talent, named Ai Ai [sp?]. There was an offer to do an illustration on her; Wakabayashi had an offer to draw her, and Wakabayashi talked to Nishigori Atsushi, the director for DARLING in the FRANXX and character designer for Gurren Lagann, about how this person named Mago draws really cute girls.
So, Wakabayashi and Nishigori thought that Mago’s illustration style was cute, so they asked Mago to do a comic spin-off about Ai Ai. Mago agreed. Two months later, the studio started working on Kill la Kill and asked Mago if she was interested in creating the official SD designs for Kill la Kill. Ever since then, Mago has been working on various Studio Trigger titles.
It’s been maybe roughly seven years, Hiromi says, that they’ve been working with Mago. They’ve been working with Mago since before they were making anime series. It’s been a long time! Mago is the studio’s go-to person when they need a cute design, Wakabayashi says.
Wakabayashi says that when they were coming up with Space Patrol Luluco, which was their fifth-year anniversary anime title, they approached Mago. It was kind of a joke series at the same time as well.
There’s a question from cataphractz: “Do any of you have a particular anime character you like outside of Trigger?”
Mago’s favorite character outside of Trigger works is this pirate character from Nintama Rantarou. Have you ever heard of Nintama Rantarou? The series is about these little ninjas in training. The anime is very, very… it airs every day on NHK. It’s a longtime-running series in Japan. Mago’s favorite character’s name is Atoi, the pirate. He only appears about once a year in the series. Mago made a lot of doujin.
I guess Hiromi is going to Google some fan illustrations that Mago posted.
So, we were discussing that it’s hard to come up with a character that we like. We have so many characters that we like! We thought it might be easier to think of a character we that we like from a series we recently watched. Hiromi didn’t know! He couldn’t think of any off the top of his head, so he told me to go first!
The studio boss, Masahiko Ohtsuka, bought Porco Rosso on Blu-ray recently, and I watched it. That film has always been one of my more favorite Ghibli films. It’s like waifu wars! You guys get new waifus every month. I don’t get new waifus that frequently; it’s hard to choose from all the numerous waifus. I recently watched Porco Rosso. I liked Fio. Porco is awesome as well, but Fio is smashing cute. At the moment, I like Fio. That’s what I was trying to say to Hiromi.
Mago says that she likes SpongeBob because it’s such a cute and funny show. She likes Gary, the cat-like snail!
Hiromi says that he likes Gwen more for Spider-Verse.
All right, this question is from Kuribo4: “Did you know Luluco would turn into Trigger when you designed her? Love your characters!”
So, Wakabayashi says that this goes a little bit back. They kind of neck-wrote their mascot characters 5-6 years ago. They wanted to do an April Fools’ joke. At the time, the mascot characters didn’t have names, but they just went with “Trigger Girls” for the joke. The joke was about making a new anime series about the Trigger Girls. The illustration for the joke was drawn by Mago.
Then, a few years later, they had the opportunity to do Space Patrol Luluco. Hiromi personally wanted to link that series with Trigger Girls. That’s also the reason why he wanted Mago to be the character designer for Luluco. Wakabayashi says that he wanted Luluco to transform into Trigger Girl in the end. He made a special request to director Imaishi and pushed for Mago to be the designer.
Luluco has a weird pigtail, Wakabayashi says. Hiromi says he made the request specifically to Mago because he wanted the pigtail to turn into… I don’t know how “ahoge” translates. It’s like a bad hair day? I don’t know what it is! We call it ahoge! I hope that answers your question, Kuribo! I see the term “cowlick” for “ahoge.”
Mago is currently doing a stage performance in Osaka. The script is done by Nakashima Kazuki. I’m assuming it’s doing well. It’s a pretty popular title.
This question is from Patreon. The user name is Grandpa: “Waka-Sama, when are we getting another Promare trailer?”
Wakabayashi is explaining that you can expect a new trailer in the near future, very soon.
[In response to unvoiced questions on the chat log about pizza.] So, Wakabayashi likes pizza and coke. Mago doesn’t really have a favorite type of pizza. I wondered if she supported pineapple on pizza. She’s indifferent, so I’m guessing she’s okay with pineapple on pizza.
So, everybody says that Galo from Promare looks really close to Kamina from Gurren Lagann. Wakabayashi is curious if people really think that way. Why don’t people think that Galo looks like Mikisugi if we’re thinking about half-naked guys with blue hair, Wakabayashi asks?
Wakabayashi says that Galo’s hairstyle is very natural if you think about his profession, which is firefighting. When running into a fire, there is a lot of hot air coming up, and that’s why Galo’s hair is always spiked up. There’s almost a buzz on the side because the hair on the side burns off!
So, no_04, I’ve seen your name on Twitter a few times. I think you follow me on Twitter. You strike a good point. Galo is basically Panty’s hair with Kamina.
So, again, no_04 made a good point, Wakabayashi says. Panty is the main character of Panty and Stocking. Galo is obviously the main character of Promare. If you notice, when Ryuko gets her Kisaragi outfit in the final episode, her hair is kind of spiked upwards, too. In all of Imaishi’s work, his main characters have this spiky hair. Even before Imaishi was a professional, he had a fan manga with a character whose hair spiked up as well. The hairstyle is an icon for a main character in Imaishi’s work. The hairstyle represents Imaishi’s stance to rebel against whatever is oppressing him. That’s why a lot of the characters—especially main characters—have spiky hair in Imaishi’s works.
I have a question from maxie721 who asks, “What about Mago? Any special features in her characters?”
Mago answers that she doesn’t really have any special features in her characters. When she tries to think too deeply, things don’t work out; she feels like she restricts herself too much, and it kind of kills the illustration on a whole.
There’s a question from Tony on Patreon that asks, “Would Studio Trigger ever do a “Basics of a Trigger Animation” tutorial on a live stream?”
Wakabayashi says the content in a Trigger animation tutorial would be pretty lecture-like and might not be too entertaining. There is a producer at Trigger who likes doing tutorials, though, and goes to colleges to do so. They would need a different line of staff to do a tutorial, however.
For those who want to know how to draw in general, Wakabayashi says, these kinds of streams are basically a cheat guide for you guys, which is why we do it. We make the streams available for later. If you don’t have time to watch a 2-3-hour stream, we make an edited version available for later. We should upload the stream within a few days. However, we haven’t uploaded the March stream yet because the tech staff has been too busy. We’ll hopefully get to it soon. If you’re a Patreon supporter, we provide .psd files for these illustrations, which is even more of a reference to work with for those who are interested. Please do check it out!
There was a question earlier on our Twitch chat log. The question was something along the lines of, “I saw one of the rougher illustrations or rough takes on Lalaco Godspeed. Why did you decide on short, bob-like hair for Lalaco?”
Wakabayashi says the answer is that Lalaco had a big fur coat and didn’t want the hair to overlap with that coat. Also, in terms of the design process for animation, Wakabayashi says that shorter-haired girls tend to be perceived as more energetic or active. Girls with longer hair tend to be perceived more as… I have to choose my words properly. They’re not docile. That’s a bad word! [Laughing] “Calm” or “reserved” would be what I’m thinking of. Short hair was used, Wakabayashi says, because Lalaco’s obviously a very aggressive person, and they thought the short hair would better portray her personality.
There’s a question from no_04: “Was it difficult for Mago-san to adapt Gridman or the kaiju to the SD style for the line stickers?”
Mago says that the kaiju was not very hard for her. She had more trouble redesigning Gridman and his other mechs. So, Mago can draw monsters and kaiju because they’re basically animals, she says. However, she has trouble drawing mechs and robots.
So, Hiromi was asking if Mago was having trouble redesigning this black object that the studio asked her to draw (and of which he can’t give too many details about).
So, this was a question from berikpo: “What are Mago’s favorite accessories to wear and to draw?”
Mago’s answer was sneakers. She likes Nike Air Force 1 in particular. However, the one she owns most are Air Jordans.
We have a question from Kikoman589: “Has Mago’s childhood or upbringing influenced her art in any way?”
When Mago was very young, her first manga she ever bought was Urusei Yatsura. She feels like she was pretty heavily influenced from that series. She used to copy from that book a lot and drew her own illustrations.
I asked Mago about why she doesn’t draw any male characters. I was curious if she doesn’t like drawing males. She doesn’t! She likes drawing girls! Hiromi asked about Nova, who is a guy. Mago says that that’s the reason for there not being much passion.
I guess I got it a little wrong, but Mago doesn’t like drawing male characters. Old dudes are out of the question. Luluco’s father was actually designed by another of the main animators.
This question was from k3shanberk. They ask when Mago committed to a career of drawing.
Mago says she hasn’t really committed herself to drawing yet. If she gets offers for her illustrations or her designs, she thinks she can get herself into another line of work immediately.
Last year, Mago felt she needed to take a little break from drawing to gain a bit of sanity. She worked part-time at a shoe store for a while.
Mago’s nickname was “Mago” when she was younger. She just picked that up as her penname or handle for illustration. I don’t think she feels comfortable sharing her full name.
Ex_trident asks, “Any kind of media you guys are into lately? Like a specific movie, a song, novels, or even games?”
I guess Hiromi is into Legos right now. Hiromi bought some kind of kit for Lego Movie 2. The film isn’t available in Japan right now. He’s too busy to build it because he has to work on Promare. If Hiromi has time, he wants to make vehicles or mechs from Promare with his Lego kits.
I guess Mago was playing Fortnite on iPad. I didn’t even know you could play that on iPad! I’m surprised! Again, I’m surprised that Fortnite is playable on iPad.
Hiromi says that maybe they’ll do some streaming on the Kill la Kill game when the game is released. Maybe Mago can stop by and play as well, he says!
There’s another question from no_04: “Is Wakabayashi planning to continue Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt: CEMETERY HILLS story where Nova means Panty and Brief in the end?”
By the way, Hiromi would like to inform everyone that CEMETERY HILLS is not a Panty and Stocking series. There is no relation with Panty and Stocking, but he would like to continue.
Sorry, there is a relationship between the two. In Panty and Stocking, the main character is Panty, but in CEMETERY HILLS, the main character is Geekboy; that’s the distinction. Hiromi would like to make a sequel. In the next sequel, Hiromi would like to introduce gun morphing like in Space Patrol Luluco in Panty and Stocking as well. He would like to see Panty transform into a gun!
There’s a question from evsanata: “Does Mago have any favorite artists? Who are the artists that have inspired her and influenced shaping her art?
I think we answered the later part of this question already. We’ll answer the first half now. Mago’s favorite illustrator and animator is Akiman. Mago’s first encounter with Akiman was over the Internet. There was a special forum where Akiman regularly converses with his fans, and that’s where Mago first met him. At that time, Akiman was looking for an assistant to help him with his series. Mago took that job and was helping Akiman for quite a bit.
Mago doesn’t remember how long she had that job. However, ever since she helped Akiman out, they have been in contact with each other. As such, Akiman has been a good moral support for Mago ever since the job.
totallynotnameddan says, “It was unclear from your phrasing. Is this supposed to detail the origin of gun morphing ‘cause that would be cool?”
I’m sorry if it was unclear. Hiromi wanted to make Panty able to transform into a gun with gun morphing as well.
How many of you have visited Comic Market? Have you visited Mago’s booth for Comic Market?
InfectedAdri asks, “Mago-san, how’s your dog doing?”
Mago says her dog is doing well. I guess she took her Chihuahua grooming, and now the dog is looking like a baby. There are two types of Chihuahuas, she explained. The one that I’m familiar with has short hair, so I wondered if Chihuahuas really need grooming. She says there are two types: one with long hair and one with short hair. Her Chihuahua has long hair, so if she doesn’t take her dog to grooming every once in a while, he has dingleberries, where the poop gets stuck in the hair. He needs regular maintenance.
ThexIncinerator asks, “What are the next conventions lined up for you guys? Will Mago be appearing at any of them?”
Wakabayashi says that he doesn’t think they’ve announced any of their 2019 events yet. They haven’t visited many conventions because they’ve been working on Promare. As soon as they finish Promare, they’ll probably make their presence at various cons. Mago is planning to appear at Comitia, which is a lot smaller than Comic Market and only allows original titles.
Personally, I like Comitia better than Comic Market.
It is Mago’s birthday in April, so she plans to do a birthday event! She will probably announce that. She wants to be pampered once in a while.
PraQnickstream asks, “Where can we find the dates of those comic events?”
Just Google Comitia. It takes place four times a year, so it’s a pretty frequent event.
Mago’s birthday is on April 11th. It might be on a different date! Mago doesn’t have too much of a pleasant memory… in Japan, you change your grade level every April. In April, you have a new class with new classmates. It’s hard to have a welcoming environment even if it’s your birthday. Mago didn’t have a very cheerful experience.
Ulric10 asks, “Idk if you’re gonna answer this, but could I have some tips for drawing like you?”
Mago says to draw what interests you and what you want to draw. So, if you just simply want to draw for your own entertainment, Mago says, draw just what pleases you. However, Mago says that if you want to get good at drawing, you should draw your own manga. You’ll be forced to draw various angles and backgrounds that you probably wouldn’t enjoy drawing otherwise, so you’ll gain experience.
There’s a question from NeoCoill from Patreon: What is Trigger's stance when it comes to creators making profit through fanworks of Trigger’s characters and shows (e.g. Doujinshi sold at Comiket or digitally)?
So, Hiromi thinks that it’s similar to cosplay...
Mago finished drawing! This is the final illustration! The illustration will be available on our Patreon page. If you’re interested, please do support us. All of the money goes to our creators, illustrators, and character designers who make guest appearances to our streams. None of the money goes to the studio. The support is appreciated.
Let’s finish up the question. Hiromi was saying that it’s similar to cosplay. If they shut out every aspect of fan community activities, it kind of halts the growth of their content as well. Even though they came up with the designs and concepts of these characters, for people who sell doujin and fanart, they are ultimately the ones drawing the individual art pieces. He doesn’t think that it’s right to say that it’s not their work to sell. Hirmoi personally doesn’t have anything against doujin or fanarts. He’s genuinely happy about people drawing their characters. If that’s what people do, they should continue to do it, he says.
Mago is happy to see her characters on other people’s doujins. She thinks that if you draw, it would be awesome to draw more of her characters in your doujins and illustrations.
We would like to ask Mago what her selling point for her illustration today is.
So, when Mago usually receives a commission or request for illustration, there’s always an offer from the client talking about the proportions of the characters, and these proportions are made pretty specific. It’s hard to organize these proportions. Today, Mago drew two characters who are basically the same character and have the same proportions. Mago is proud that the two characters are in the same proportion and will pat her own back!
This will be our last stream until maybe June. We need to concentrate on the production for Promare. We will take maybe two months off from our stream activity, but we will continue our smaller activities on Patreon. We upload the monthly shikishi for our supporters to see and will continue to do that. The livestreaming will have to wait until June when we finish Promare, though.
Thank you for coming to our stream. I bet it’s like 5:00 am on the west or east coast. 
Would you guys watch if we streamed like random people from Studio Trigger playing games? We were curious. For example, would you like to see me and Hiromi play Apex? We might be able to do those kind of stupid—not stupid; I mean non-creative—streams in the near future. We’ll have to stop on the illustration streams until June, but there’s a big response for these gaming streams, so we might have to do that!
All right. That will be it for tonight’s stream. Thank you for your participation. Have a good night, everyone.
28 notes · View notes
altonadventures · 6 years
Text
ALTON ADVENTURES BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
So...because its Friday and I usually update AA on Fridays, I figured it was time to make my big announcement! 
And that is...that Alton Adventures is changing. A little bit. 
Am I rebooted the comic again? No haha! Once I get back to it it shall continue as normal but some characters may look a bit different going forward. 
Who may those characters be?
Sir Gareth Nemesis 
Tumblr media
Why is he changing? 
Sir Nemesis’ change is actually less drastic than one may think. For starters, he needed a design rehaul. I wanted his armor to be more simple, easier to draw but with still details that could tie him to Nemesis (the green eye, the arms, the light pink details instead of inconsistent tentacles). I also had an issue where his hair was too close to his skin color, so to combat this I turned him into a ginger! His eye color also changed from gold to green, another thing to visually tie him more to Nemesis. 
So yes, I changed Sir Nem’s design because I was unhappy with it. His armor was never drawn consistently ever, I was constantly changing the tone of his hair and his skin so that was inconsistent. I want my designs to be more consistent and polished going forward.
What else is different? Well, you can probably tell he looks much more serious, like in older pictures I drew of him. Why is that? Well, I was kind of..honestly tired of his role as the “dad character tm” that he kind of turned out to be. It almost undermined his true characterization and turned him into a typical over the top exaggerated hero character. And I started to realize how much I missed his original concept. A battle hardened solider that was filled with regret and remorse, who heavily sympathizes with the plight of the alien he’s locked in combat with. He’s still much a father however, as he has a biological son and adopts an alien who mimics his likeness (hence another reason he’s a ginger now as his Nemesis daughter always was one). He’s just returned to his roots as a character. Because I felt that characterization was a unique one for the Nemesis ride. And it was an idea I really loved. Sir Nemesis actually WAS one of my favorite characters...I wanted his role to be much larger than it is in the comics. I don’t blame anyone for him becoming a joke, I did initially kind of fuel the fire for it, I’m just hoping that its not to late to get back to the Sir Nemesis I originally wanted to write. And of course, all my characters are still meme and joke worthy. I just want to tackle much more serious issues with my comic and show the more serious side of some of my characters and don’t want there entire existence to be a joke Mr.S can’t have too many folks 1 uping him in the laughs department!  I guess to note with this change that his original voice claim has also been solidified as well. It’s a more somber and serious tone that I feel fits him as a character. 
Final Notes 
Sir Nemesis is a character that I have a lot of thought put into. His backstory is tragic, emotional, and his character is complex and he’s not the perfect hero people might image him as. I plan for his Arc to follow the Fireworks arc in the comic, as well as I am planning to start some more text heavy short stories about how the Secret Weapons became Secret Weapons (which I will likely call Secret Weapon Short Stories hehe) and will be writing his first. Also a very important thing i must address. Yes, the eye on his chest moves. (I have a gif but it doesn’t want to work on this post Ill have it up later ><)
Erica Annabelle Cloud 
Tumblr media
ooof okay this is a huge one. Confession time. Erica was always my least favorite character. Why? She just had...no character. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with her, her design felt phoned in and there because I needed an Air/Galatica character, (yes, she is changing as her Galatica stage too). She was just. not well thought out. She had a dual identity but I think a lot of people didn’t pick up on that? She felt like a Rita 2.0 as just a nice and friendly optimistic person and literally had 0 backstory. Originally she was supposed to have had some sort of accident that turned her into Galatica and she had memory loss and forgotten about when she was Air, yeah it was a mess. That eventually just turned into Nebula Corona being a character she made up (bc her one trait was that she was into space and wrote a lot) that she played as when her rides themeing changed. 
She was just..barely a character and her design was abysmal (Her Galatica suit was okay but her Air outfit was an afterthought) She needed a massive visual upgrade. A sleeker flight suit that makes more sense (I used a ref or two for this design!) A different face shape to help her stand out more, my signature they wear glasses they have dot eyes look. Long, wispy, flowing hair to resemble those trails planes make. A bit more lanky and tall. And let me tell you I LOVE her design now. It looks so much more unique and you can just SEE she has so much more character now!  As for her characterization im going full into her being a nerd. A very tech nerd at that! She designed her suit to help her fly at her best, and eventually will be the one that designs and builds all her Galatica tech! Her Galatica design hasn’t been done yet, mostly bc I wanted to focus on her current comic canon design, but not much would change I feel with her upgrade anyways! She is effectively the brains of the group, and the others often turn to her for plans of attack when dealing with a situation, or innovative solutions to problems! I have yet to get a voice claim for her, but im sure one will come to me soon enough! 
Final Notes
Erica/Nebula was a character I struggled to connect with. Everyone else had Airs that were either super plot important, or just much more cool and creative in general. I felt, that with my Air/Galatica she was just there, and I wanted her to be more. So a full character rehaul was done with her and it makes me so happy. She feels much more fleshed out, better designed, and I’m super excited to do more stuff with her, and hopefully you will all see her much more now that I’m a lot happier with her as a character! <3 
Welp that's the end of the updates....wait. Hold on. I have something written here. What could this be? Oh! I remember now! 
Black Hole, AkA Beatrix, will be joining the MAIN CAST of Alton Adventures! 
Tumblr media
When I drew my Black Hole design, I knew she was something special. She stands out compared to a lot of my characters, and her design SCREAMS main character. While the biggest main roles will still be held by Mr. S and Rita, I wanted to add another non SW coaster to the main crew, and because Canonically Corkscrew is MIA, Black Hole seemed like a fitting addition to the main crew! As she isn’t human, a species literally only referred to as Black Holes, I thought making her a main character and giving her a big arc would help flesh out the reality of non humans in Alton Adventures! Her powers and design and character and personality are just too fun to shove her into the background. I feel that adding her to the main cast gives them not only another character to support them, but a closer friend! You will all see her much more in the future for certain! 
Well that's about it! In terms of comic updates themselves...its still going to be hiatus as long as I’m being swamped with school work. I hope you all understand. I’ll try to squeeze in updates over the breaks I have IF im not working on assignments for class. As I also said, I wanna do short stories as well, to expand the world and explain it better, as a comic will only develop the world so quickly and lots of you have tons of questions! I also wanna do something animated at some point, that’s my dream. I’ve ALSO mentioned to some people about merch, likely going for making stickers first since that's simple. I got an excited reaction for that so I’ll come up with designs for them soon! I just wanna do a lot with Alton Adventures, because I know how much it means to people, and of course it means so much. Goodness I really need to actually get to this park, I look quiet silly constantly gushing over a themepark I’ve never been to all the time XP  That all aside I thank you all for sticking by me. I promise that even if I don’t do comic updates as frequently during the school year, I’ll still work to push out as much AA content I can outside of that! I’m always open to suggestions to what you guys want to see! ALSO, working on a big google doc spreadsheet with info on all the characters I’ll be posting when its more completed! So be on the lookout for that! 
Tumblr media
Again thank you to everyone who’s stuck with me through this, Your support makes me feel nothing but proud of what I’ve created. These characters may have been created out of something some may consider silly or odd, but the only thing that matters to me if that I can make at least someone happy with what I create. 
Patreon (note that patrons got to see all of this content as it was being worked on!) l Ko-fi
13 notes · View notes
thegreatgayescape · 6 years
Text
Dreadnought-Nemesis: The Hero We Need Right Now is a Trans Woman and a Lesbian
Tumblr media
I read Dreadnought Book One-Nemesis cover to cover in two days. I, to put it simply, am a superhero kind of person. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe being what it is right now, (a capitalist and cultural phenomenon, that has been changing the entertainment industry for over a decade now,) there is no shortage of caped crusaders to choose from. Especially if you like your superheroes to be white, or cis, or straight, or men.
Tumblr media
The MCU only just broke out of its cis-white-straight-man-superhero-factory-settings last year with Black Panther. Black Panther was simply a triumph. And I won’t do it justice without giving it its own post, which I currently can’t do.
Tumblr media
If you’ve read Black Panther comics about the Wakandan prince, you know definitively that the movie was completely straight-washed. The comic is not discreet about Ayo and Okoye being canonically gay together.
Tumblr media
Hopefully, the Black Panther sequel will be gay as heck and then I can make the gushing post about it that we all want.
This year, we are getting out first origin story MCU movie about a straight, white, cis-woman superhero, Captain Marvel. And as delighted as I am, just to have a movie starring a not-dude, (no I don’t count Wonder Woman. Guardians of the Galaxy II had more of a feminist backbone,) I’d give anything in the world to have a Ms. Marvel movie next year.
Tumblr media
Kamala Khan is Ms. Marvel and a Pakistani-American teenager who lives in Trenton New Jersey. Her comic is better written, her character is more defined, and she struggles to make her own path, her own costume, be herself, and kick butt.
Matter of fact, can I get a Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur movie please? Lunella Layfaette, aka Moon Girl, is the smartest person in the Marvel Universe, and she is a nine-year-old black girl in Brooklyn, NY, fighting cavemen with her pet dinosaur and her inventions. She’s fearless as heck.
Tumblr media
Who we dream into superheroes, which cape we look up to, big-eyed, and point to saying “me,” it matters. And for marginalized people, the fantasy of having superpowers, or any power, has a different flavor.
I can’t get into all the shit that happened last week but it was a bad week to be Trans in America. A memo was leaked, which discussed Trump’s plan to have gender defined as the genitals one was born with, wiping trans folks from existence. The Department of Justice told the US Supreme court that is was legal to fire trans employees for being trans. The mention of trans Americans was scrubbed from the white house website. In my fear and panic, I started reading Dreadnought just to be able to sleep and eat.
Give me the gay: Dreadnought, by April Daniels, is about Danielle Tozer. She’s a closeted trans teenager and lesbian, living with her parents and going to high school. She’s painting her toenails behind a mall when god-like superpowers get dropped in her lap. And this is when it gets interesting, her powers change her body into her idealized self. She insta-transitions in a burst of light. The rest of the story is about what happens next.
Danny struggles. Her parents want to fix her. Her dad is awful and abusive. The local league of superheroes is split about wanting to support her, including a super-TERF called Grey Witch who’s particularly gross. Her best friend starts hitting on her and won’t stop. Danny doubts herself. And Danny, despite all odds, is amazing. She finds the people who will cheer her on, as we, the audience, whoops and cheers too.
It’s the story I needed when I needed it. The trans content was so authentic and relatable to me, it felt like I co-authored it. But it’s also hella true to the genre. There are mecha fights downtown, planes falling from the sky, a masked vigilante with a grudge, super suits, and reporters with no sense of self-preservation. The second book in the series, Sovereign, is on my reading list.
if you are trans like me and need something to get you through, try Dreadnought. 4/4 Dreadnoughts to wear the mantle.
Check out http://www.aprildaniels.com/  follow @1AprilDaniels on twitter or support her on Patreon here https://www.patreon.com/AprilDaniels. Buy on Book One-Nemesis on Amazon here: http://a.co/d/7NpjIDT
4 notes · View notes