#cjjoughin

[alkcomics]

I'll be tabling at Rose City Comic Con 🌹 Sept 22-24, table AA04! Got some silly new things for y'all~ Sharing the space with @cjjoughin who's also got some gorgeous new pins and queer vampire comics 👀👀👀

#rose city comic con 2023 #merch #jules jourdain #come say hi

[maiji]

4) Favorite female character(s)?

Yu Yu Hakusho has a very strong female cast, and I love so many of them for so many different reasons. Even Togashi's most stereotypical ladies have nuances to them that make them that much more atypical, that much more multi-dimensional, that much more real, than a cookie cutter trope. In 30 days of yu yu I talked at length about Genkai. And I still agree with pretty much everything I wrote before. So I'm going to take this opportunity to talk about a really badass female character who is rarely discussed.

Yusuke’s human ancestor/Raizen's lover the kudakusushi is only really ever identified as "onna" (woman), and Raizen never reveals her name - if he ever even knew it, since he seemed so impressed and cowed by her. She only appears in one scene, a flashback, but what a presence and figure she cuts. And what an awesome (in the truest sense of the word) ripple effect her existence has made all the way through 700 years.

I really like both the idea of the character and also the execution of the character. In a number of ways she tips both the manic pixie dream girl and the Japanese yamato nadeshiko tropes on their heads. Raizen is carefree and high on doing whatever the hell he wants to do, which is basically just eating humans for fun and fighting and causing trouble, then he meets the woman of his dreams that he never could have imagined: a corpse-eating Buddhist shaman whose body is a complete wasteland of poison and disease so that she can make antidotes to save others. And she's like "Who the hell are you? You're garbage. You wanna eat me? Go ahead. You'll die and you'll still be garbage." and Raizen is like, "Whoa. Holy shit. You are totally right. I am complete garbage and a waste of existence." And is motivated into ascetic reform for the rest of his life to try to become worthy of her.

We know Raizen was completely in love. But there's little to no indication of how tied she was to him - her story completely separates from his after their one meeting, and there's a strong sense that her character is very much independent from him, which is something pretty amazingly hard to pull off considering she only appears in the narrative because of that single night he has with her. But it's made very clear that Raizen was the one who chases her, that he begs her for that one night, that they never speak of a future nor meet again. Raizen dreams of a reunion in reincarnation before he dies, but this never happens. There is absolutely no sign that on her side, she was nostalgic about him at all; the story hints at the opposite, in fact: that she may have fully severed attachments to the material world.

Also another thing that I found very compelling is that in the manga, in the Taiwanese edition in any case, Raizen describes her as (paraphrased): "A physically weak, pale, gaunt, ugly woman with the scent of a sorcerer, but I loved the look in her eyes. She was the first person to ever stare at me with such a glare of contempt." LMAO. (I don’t have the original Japanese to compare it to, but IIRC the official English manga translation is extremely watered down on Raizen’s description of her.) But that’s why the first time I ever saw her appear in the anime, where her design is a very conventional Japanese beauty, I was like, "...HUH??" (In the manga, she's not really drawn that ugly either, but it's harder to tell. Her face is usually partly obscured in shadow.) 

In summary, a very, very badass lady. I like her lots.

16) Favorite member of the Sensui 7?

Mitarai Kiyoshi! Again, I still agree with pretty much everything I said in 30 days from a story perspective, so let’s talk about his character design lol. I really like his design! I personally find it so freaking hard to come up with interesting short hairstyles for male characters, and his is a really good one of a style that I have never really seen much anywhere else. I like the colour palette the anime gave him too, lots of yellows with a splash of blue. Also his seiyuu is MATSUMOTO RICAAAAAA

His territory power is pretty cool too, although it’s a good thing he’s not anemic. His first appearance, the rainy night battle with Kuwabara, is a really fantastic one. It’s one of those fights I don’t mention very often BUT I SHOULD because it’s SO WELL-DONE. It opens with this little sequence of Kuwabara and his friends walking in the rain after having their time of their life at a concert and talking about heading out for some karaoke - when Sawamura suddenly disappears. The setup reminds me of rainy night ghost stories, and has a great mood to it. The comic panels for the entire fight have this very memorable, overriding sense of a constant background of rain and night, like a deluge, and the water effects are all rendered so well. There’s a lot of great texture and layering going on too, and the bulk and sense of volume/density of water of Mitarai’s creatures really come through. Whoops, this turned into a comics drawing ramble. BUT YES, MITARAI! I LIKE HIM! lol

20) When was the first time you ever seen this series?

I touch on this a little in 30 days of yu yu - it would've been elementary school, around when the series first came out. We followed along overseas, and my dad would pick up stuff for my sister and me whenever he happened to be travelling around Asia. My sister read me the volumes, we'd get CDs and anime artbooks and things like that. Growing up, my impression of the series was the manga first and foremost, then the Japanese seiyuu because of the image songs and audio dramas. I knew the anime and the movies primarily through screencaps from magazines and the anime compilation books, and Eizou Hakusho on VHS.

It was only in late high school or university that we picked up a bootleg copy of the entire series and I watched it end to end in Japanese for the very first time. Well, almost end to end. We had to take breaks because it was too much. As mentioned in 30 days, the English subtitles were hilariously awful, and "Rei gun" was rendered as "Magic Ball". I was busting a gut and have no idea how my sister and I made it through an episode (or maybe even several) before we gave up and switched to Chinese subtitles. I was never so grateful in my life that Yusuke only has four shots available lmao

@cjjoughin​ Thank you so much for asking!! :D!

#cjjoughin #yu yu hakusho #meme #replies #reply #kudakusushi #raizen #mitarai kiyoshi #manga #anime #21 questions yyh style

[bob-artist]

cjjoughin replied to your post “oh hi new people :D”

.... is that black beans and peas thing good? 'cause I kinda wanna try it.

You know that sort of dry musty smell cat kibble has before you start to smell the meaty aspects of it?  That’s pretty much how that bar tasted at first.  By the end, I kind of got used to it, though.  The beans had a sort of puffed corn cereal texture.  It wasn’t the worst.  It didn’t make me want to sob while eating it.

I always like to have non-sweet meal bars on hand for urgent situations because I don’t handle sugar well, but this one was pretty high priced and not enough calories or protein to hold off a real meal for long, so it’s not my first choice.  But there are so few non-sweet meal bar options out there, I’d be willing to buy it again in a pinch.

That said, you should know I’m ridiculously tolerant when it comes to bad-tasting meal bars, so your mileage may vary. ;)

#cjjoughin #replies #meal bars are my only North Sphere food trait #I'm totally a blue-tie but I'd buy all my food from other spheres XD #except meal bars with suitable ingredients #food

[isitwednesday]

In December of last year, we received a recommendation to read City of Cards by @cjjoughin. So without further ado…

Today’s spotlight is on City of Cards by CJ Joughin.

Updates: Once a month Recommended if you liked: Tekken KinKreet, VA-11 HALL-A, Transistor, and Brave New World

It’s hard to describe what makes City of Cards so compelling to read. Even from the epigraph - a quote from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” - I was hooked on finding out what this new world was. The quote discusses one’s ability to reach enlightenment only through spiritual pursuits, rather than relying on physical senses to be an accurate representation of the world. For a webcomic that exists within a futuristic dystopia where everything is regimented, and your job is pretty much your entire identity, that’s a heavy quote to start on. In addition to this, CJ Joughin art balances between the realistic representation of a person and the harsh reality that these characters live in. At first I was a bit taken aback by how dark the story is - not just the art, but the plotline, the character backgrounds, the overall concept. However, when I sat down to read this work, I just flew through the pages. It’s a compelling dive into what people do to live, the power that they try to grasp even within a system that is attempting to stop them at every turn.

This stark, enlightening look at the everyday world, coupled with the dystopian and sci-fi elements of ID credits, ghostly images, and district regulated areas, makes City of Cards one that is not for the faint of heart but a treasure for those who are looking to sit in the darkness with these characters.

CJ Joughin describes City of Cards as “a retro-future exploration of the capitalist hellscape we all currently live in, filled with the hopes of the people that inhabit that world and the love that keeps them going despite all odds against them” and that is the most perfect summary of this. In addition to this, Joughin’s love for this project is obvious is every panel. Joughin has spent over a decade working on this story, and this is the type of work that we need right now - one that takes the discouraging parts of our own society and shines a light on where we could go and how we can continue to hope for the future.

Read it HERE from the beginning!

Support independent artists! CJ Joughin’s Patreon

#city of cards #cjjoughin #is it wednesday #webcomic reviews

[hesmiledlikeaweatherman]

I drew an Ace from City of Cards 💙💜

#Archie draws #city of cards #cjjoughin #fanart #Ace

[the-everlasting-ash]

cjjoughin replied to your photo: Aaaahh finally finished my Yu-Gi-Oh print...

Noice.

Thanks brah :]   👍

#cjjoughin #I finally figured out how to reply to replies praise the lord #I'm slow gomen

[micahdraws]

cjjoughin replied to your post: Important information for Content Creators on...

Also, Micah, they only track the first five tags you post so after that it’s only useful for your own purposes.

Yeah, I knew about that one :/ Yet another backwards and nonsensical thing this damn website does.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother sticking around here. At least deviantart tracks all the tags...

#cjjoughin

[parallelinescomic]

Hopefully finishing my next update this weekend, Angelo’s got a lot of feelings to sort out.

#parallel lines #comic process #lgbt webcomics #cjjoughin

[urban-banshee]

YAY!! The adorable keychains I bought from @cjjoughin arrived. Check out those adorable stickers too <3 I love them

[micknagerie]

Working on another batch of cute little embroidered plush keychains for @cjjoughin ! #plush #stuffedtoy #keychain #machineembroidery #inthehoop #commission #stars #hearts #moon https://www.instagram.com/p/BxyyxRQptew/?igshid=1a8pdfe1f8x9b

#plush #stuffedtoy #keychain #machineembroidery #inthehoop #commission #stars #hearts #moon

[alkcomics]

Happy Birthday, @cjjoughin! It’s been great having you in Reno to talk comics and watch movies with!

Here’s big boy Plato from CJ’s queer sci-fi epic webcomic City of Cards. I’ve been digging the new Circus Olympus story arc costumes a lot!

#LOL what even are muscles #what even are people over 5'5" #city of cards #circus olympus #plato #homage #fanart #cjjoughin

[cityofcards]

Hello all, this is just a note to say that due to Tumblr’s instability if you want to keep following my art I recommend looking up cjjoughin on Instagram as well as on twitter, (though personally I prefer Instagram these days).

And as always, please visit www.cityofcards.com for comic updates and links to everything I do. You can also find it on Tapas.

I will continue to post here as I have been, but I’d like to have a backup in case. Thank you all.

[bob-artist]

cjjoughin replied to your post: I just dreamed that I got to collaborate on a book...

Kangaroo Jacked

It is way too early in the morning for me to be crying on tumblr.

#cjjoughin #replies #ffs this is too good

[elleskinner-justart]

Candy and Trump from @cjjoughin ‘s dystopian epic, City of Cards!

CJ’s currently kickstarting the first omnibus collection and backers at the print tier will get a copy of this illustration along with pieces by some other rad guest artists :) Be sure to check it out!

These two are so different in how they relate to their problems and the world around them that I wanted to draw them as a study in contrasts. Playing cards are an important thematic element to CJ’s comic and I thought they’d be fun to work in as well!

#fanart #city of cards #webcomics #kickstarter rewards

[maiji]

Tag game

Wooops I totally missed this in my notifications! I've definitely answered a few variations of this meme before, so BY THE POWER VESTED IN ME BY ME I have taken the liberty of adjusting most some of the questions if I’ve answered them before. 

Tagged by: @taki-flower ^^ (thank you!)

(Nick)Name: Maiji

Most frequent typo I make of my own nickname: Nauhu, thanks to wrong home keys

My Zodiac sign, and a Zodiac sign I think is super cool for whatever reason: Gemini. I think Aquarius a super cool sign because it’s eccentric and idealist and humanitarian and COOL TO DRAW

Height I think I am VS height I actually am: I always think I’m like 5′6″ or something but I’m actually more like 5′4ish. (I never remember how tall I am so I keep a note with this information on my phone in case people ask lol)

Languages and levels:

English - fluent

Mandarin - fluent speaking, reading meh, writing lol omg what is that abomination you write like you’re in grade 3

Spanish - muy muy basic everything

Japanese - super basic everything (can read some kanji thanks to Chinese but not know the pronunciation in Japanese, can read katakana and hiragana but not necessarily know the meaning lmao)

French - super basic everything

3 fruits I like:

Bananas (but not necessarily banana-flavoured things)

Longan

Dragonfruit

3 smells I like:

Fresh air

Fresh laundry

Fresh books

3 colours I like:

Green - but not green green, I like greens that are more yellowy-green or sometime more bluey-green

Neutrals (greys, browns etc.) that defy easy classification

Black

3 fictional characters I would marry:

Hokushin (Yu Yu Hakusho). Also we’re already married

Kaoru Chujo (Tale of Genji)

Arikoto (Ooku)

A story involving me and candy I like: I used to love White Rabbit candy. When I was in high school (I think) I had a whole bag of it next to my bed. My bedroom was in the basement, and at some point the whole thing hardened into something inedible and/or I got so sick of it that I haven’t eaten any since. Although, I did have a white rabbit candy-flavoured ice cream from Wong’s Ice Cream much more recently. It was really good!! And they have vegan and gluten-free flavours too!!

If I could make a national or worldwide whatever day to celebrate something (e.g., Cat Day, Pancake Day etc.), what would it be? Comic Arts Day!

3 songs on repeat and why: 

The Echo Game (House of Flying Daggers soundtrack) - it sounds badass and I like it when I’m working on/imagining fight sequences

To Die For (The Birthday Massacre) - it’s cool but not in your face, great music when I’m drawing or writing. And the lyrics are very evocative, so if I happen to pause and actually pay attention to them, it’s fantastic mood and inspiration.

Ai Shuuressha (Kosugi Juurouta & Horiuchi Kenyuu) - HOKUSHIN lmao

What’s a memorable dream you’ve had? The memory of this one still puts a smile on my face.

3 things on my bed (this question originally was “blankets I use to sleep” and my answer is always one. I KNOW IT’S MINDBLOWINGGGG RIGHT):

A ditto

A giant IKEA carrot

A neck pillow

A memory from a trip I really enjoyed: Going to Tamsui/Danshui with my mom the first time I returned to Taiwan as an adult. It was just a really lovely day trip that started off with one of the best meals ever, and strolling down the Old Street and drawing the views of the river and people-watching and listening to the security guard telling stories and watching the sun set. 

Dream job: I didn’t change (I MEAN, ADJUST) this question because it actually made me reflect quite a bit. I used to say something ridiculous here, like travelling Taiwan eating food while drawing Yu Yu Hakusho doujinshi, but to be honest I'm not entirely sure I would want that to be my job even jf it were possible. In all honesty I’d say my dream job is one where I...

Work with people I like.

Have positive engagement - interest, enjoyment, achievement - the majority of the time. (Because even things I love can still frustrate me to the extreme, like art.)

Have, and am encouraged to have, the energy, passion, flexibility and time to work on my personal projects - art, comics, fandom, etc.

In short, I'm incredibly fortunate and privileged to be able to say I have my dream job right now. Everyone is different, but I personally don't relish the idea of having my own creative projects tied to the pressure of making money or being judged by other people's values of what is worthwhile. And I don't know if I'd love doing it all the time. Burnout is very real, and working in an industry where I do work with other creatives, plus my own hobby, I know so many professionals who almost never have the time or energy for their own projects. 

My thoughts and feelings on this matter may change, but as I’ve written on this topic before, I've felt this way since I first realized what it was that I actually love about the things I love when I was in high school. And for me, that answer wasn’t “do it on demand" nor “have my livelihood rely on it”. 

Go to the nearest book, pg 23 line 17: It’s actually page 711 because Grasses of Remembrance doesn’t start at page 1 lol. It’s right in the middle of a poem quotation and translation, so I’ll post the complete thing or it makes no sense.

Asa madaki / Okite zo mitsuru / Ume no hana / Yo no ma no kaze no / Ushirometasa ni (”Early in the morning / I arose and went to look / At the blossoming plum, / Uneasy over the weather / And what the night wind had done”)

- Prince Motoyoshi (SIS I:29), translation by Edwin Cranston

Have you ever had a song or poem written about you?: Yes, I have written many dumb ones and a long time ago I even recorded some with a sped-up chipmunk voice as silly jokes. They’re like 10 seconds or something like that. And every so often, because I never bothered deleting the files, they come up on my music library shuffle while I am working and I’m like WTF WAS THAT??????? 

My friends have probably written about me too, usually in our random chat conversations lol.

3 sounds I have a hard time with (I removed “hate” because it’s so strong to me lol): 

Balloons squeaking against each other

Most high pitched scraping/squealing of objects against each other

Beijing opera vocals when I’m stuck in traffic and it’s hot so the window is down and the highest falsetto is blasting nonstop from a TV on the street right next to the car (I realize this this is very specific)

3 sounds I love: 

Wind chimes

Ordinary background hum/presence of people going about life in a familiar space (at home, in the city, on a subway train, in a cafe, etc.)

Benign rustling sounds (e.g., grass and leaves in the wind, paper, soft breaths/whispers)

Do you believe in aliens?: TBH I don’t know. I find the idea interesting but I don’t spend enough time thinking about whether or not I believe in it.

Do you drive?: No.

What is the last book you read?: 50 Philosophy Ideas You Really Need to Know by Ben Dupré

3 things I’m obsessed with: 

Hokushin

Tale of Genji

Rocks

Do you hold grudges: Yeah!! I just don’t really do anything because I’m too busy/lazy. And then I forget. BUT SOMETIMES I REMEMBER

Tumblr URL generator - go to http://www.spinxo.com/tumblr-names and share your results.

SpyderHokushin? ???????

MaijiMaihem and HokkuHokushin are pretty good though. (Also HokushinMine made me laugh.)

If you didn’t like that one, try this one. https://www.mookychick.co.uk/games/tumblr-name-generator.php

Not bad. And is this why Hokushin has no hair

Tagging (Up to Ten People): Only if you want to do this, otherwise IGNORE @taki-flower if you wanna do this again with any of the questions I modified lol, @om-nom-berries, @llljjj​, @sunhawk​, @naomiknight-17 @iwroteyoualoveletter @logicheartsoul @totidem-verbis​ @syntheticsolitude​ @cjjoughin​ and YOU if your username or real name is up to 10 letters long! :D

#meme #hokushin #hokushin hokushin hokushin #lol #my life as a maiji #taki-flower #me

[demonoftheunderground]

The Demon of the Underground Fan Works Gallery is Live! :D :D :D

You can check it out here!  I’m so excited!

Also, big thanks to all the awesome people who created awesome DOTU-themed stuff over the years!  Here are some of them (with additional non-tumblr links in the gallery)! @alakotila @cjjoughin @crrrvid @zippyzephy @frithcosplay @the-ashicorn @kezhound @aj-artist @whimsicalsocks @delphina2k @valeriane @raeart 

If there’s something/someone I missed that you want me to include, let me know.  And I’m always excited to see more fan stuff, so feel free to poke me if you have something you want me to see.  I might include it in the gallery!

#dotu #demon of the underground #dotu fan creations