#martin was very fun to draw here. he is so shape and is absolutely not ready to confront the idea of his love being even more unrequited-

[welcometogrouchland]

[ID: A digital fanart comic of The Magnus Archives. In it, Jon is a Sri Lankan man with brown skin and shoulder length black hair. He is wearing a teal jacket with a What The Ghost shirt and black trousers. Daisy is a white woman with black hair in a ponytail, wearing a white shirt and police vest. Martin is a Polish/Argentinian man with tanned skin and short brown hair and glasses, wearing a maroon hoodie and navy t-shirt. Basira is an Arab woman with brown skin and long black hair, wearing a brown jacket and teal turtle neck. Melanie is a Chinese woman with long bleach blond hair and black roots, wearing a black dress with translucent sleeves. Tim is a Malay man with tanned skin, and messy short black hair, wearing a white t-shirt and blue jacket.

On the first page, the first panel shows Jon talking on the phone, with illegible speech bubbles. Daisy takes notice of this. She enters a room containing the other assistants, and says "Someone ought to tell Sims to be a bit quieter when he's arguing with his..." the next speech bubble is over an image of the assistants looking up in surprise "girlfriend or whatever". Girlfriend is underlined.

Melanie responds "No that's-" but is cut off by Martin's larger, spiky speech bubble of "Girlfriend?? Daisy? Huh? What?". Basira interjects that "Wait does Jon have a girlfriend?" before Melanie slams her hand on the side of the panel she's in, yelling "He doesn't have a girlfriend! He was probably calling Georgie." She is visibly flushed.

Daisy looks frustrated and asks "Who's Georgie?". Melanie, now sweating, says "She's... She gave him a place to stay. They're just friends." Daisy's mouth has been erased for comic emphasis, and her eyebrows are a V shape. In the next panel she is more relaxed, saying "Oh. Yeah that makes more sense. Can't imagine he's taken right now." Basira is standing beside her, and Tim has appeared distantly behind them.

Tim then says "I mean..." and Daisy takes notice. He follows up with "He actually is, y'know. Somehow." All four assistants appear in the panel's corner with bulging eyes, exclaiming "What?!" in unison. Now Tim scratches the back of his neck, looking at Basira and saying "I thought you guys knew by now." Martin appears looming over him, with a spiked speech bubble saying "Know what, Tim?" Basira looks horrified as Tim gestures towards her and says "That you two are... you know." In a spiked speech bubble she then yells "What are you-" before cutting herself off and her face going blank, adding "Wait." She then looks annoyed, saying "Tim that... That was a lie Jon told you." Tim responds "...What?" and Basira says "Me and Jon never dated. He lied to cover up the fact that I was giving him evidence."

In the final page, Tim is alone in a box staring blankly ahead. As his co-workers say "...Tim? Tim are you alright?" "Tim?" and "Tim? Tim speak to us", the box he's in shatters like broken glass, leaving him standing in a white void. Still staring ahead, he simply says "I'm going to kill him." End ID]

Thoughts that occasionally plague my brain: we never see anyone actually tell Tim Jon and Basira aren't dating, ergo, I should make a very long comic about the dumbest way that could've happened <3 (also big thanks to Oran @radiosandrecordings for helping me w/ the ID)

#the magnus archives #tma #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #melanie king #tim stoker #Basira Hussein #daisy tonner #this has taken me. nearly a week #and half the panels are copy-pasted for comedic affect #such is my curse ig #my brain has been so soup these past few days but this comic <3 keeping me going #idk i just wanted to make something fun and push myself to be more comedic/exaggerated and tbh I'm! very happy w/ it #uhh i don't have too many thoughts like i said brain soup #uh. I'm proud of how the composition on this turned out for the most part? i also drew my prettiest basira ever on page 2 which is nice lol #drawing daisy's hair was also fun i was just like. haha shadow the hedgehog lookin' ass #(i say that like my inspo wasn't 100% damion scotts batgirl art lmao) #also. is tim dressed like sans because of that one post i made a while back?? that's a secret I'll never tell. xoxo gossip girl #martin was very fun to draw here. he is so shape and is absolutely not ready to confront the idea of his love being even more unrequited- #-than he thinks it is right now. Martin said if god kicks me while I'm down one more time I'm judo flipping him #jon and Georgie are probably fighting over him being so distant/not telling her stuff #idk i didn't think about it too hard it was all just joke set up #anyway! i have returned from war! funny archives be upon ye #edit: MEANT TO ADD CREDIT TO ID BUT FORGOT I HAVE DONE IT NOW

[imbeccable-writes]

GASP! How about P, S, V! About animaniacs and/or the hero academia :D

I'll do both because I am extra!!!

P. Are you what George R. R. Martin calls an "architect" or a "gardener"? (How much do you plan your story in advance or how much do you let the story unfold as you go?)

I'm much more of a gardener than an architect, but in the way a gardener may plan where the seeds are planted and then let the flowers grow as they need with the necessary care and love. And by that I mean, I have a basic, basic plan usually when I go into fics - like, a specific idea I want to get across, or a specific scene.

For instance, Separated was born purely on the "what if the kids were split up when Salazar invaded" idea that I had had swimming in my head around the new year. I dunno what EXACTLY put the idea in my head, but it was a combination of Once Upon a December and multiple, multiple instances of people being like "don't ever, ever, ever separate the Warners" (where I was like, "but - but what if we DID?")

I don't outline or anything, because most of my fics are oneshots based on prompts. Separated is the first multi-chapter fic in a long while that I fully believe I'll be able to finish because I'm just so excited for it. Back when I published the first chapter is when I started thinking about what exactly I wanted to do with the kids. I knew I wanted Wakko to have a great time and Dot to have a bad time and Yakko to be in the middle. Like I've said before, Mai was supposed to die in the chapter she was introduced in, about a week after Yakko was dropped off there. It was supposed to be a kind of "wake up call", if you will, for him, as a kinda "don't you dare get comfortable here", but of course it didn't end up that way. It just became a way for him to basically relive the worst thing that had ever happened to him, except this time, he's not going to let anyone else in and comfort him again. He already made that mistake and he's learned his lesson.

ANYWAY. Most of the specifics developed during writing, like the food trauma in chapter three and the drawing in chapter 5. By the time I'm writing the next chapter, I usually have a solid idea of what I want to happen, but it's never written out in a clear concise manner - it's all just scenes in my head waiting to come to fruition.

Like, the thing where Wakko tries to shape his body into looking like his sibs? At first, I just had the vague idea of him talking to himself in the mirror, all happy that he had found a way to reconnect with his "siblings". Or with Mai's death, all I had really was just the image of Yakko on his knees, several dozen feet away from a stage, looking absolutely devastated, and also the whole "he snuck out using his toon powers to try and save her" thing. (God i wish I could draw so so much, because I have a VIVID image of that scene in my head and I WISH I could draw it for you all to see and break your hearts like it breaks mine every time it pops into my head 😭)

Anyway, all this to say is that I don't plan a thing, I am flying by the seat of my pants and have a fic held together with duct tape, angst, and The Reunion Scene That Plagues Me Every Time I Close My Eyes. :)

S. Any Fandom tropes you can't resist?

THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED. WHATEVER WILL WE DO.

Fake Dating. I eat that shit up.

Fix-It fics :)

just... the whole, "I realize the author has made a decision (to make all their characters straight and cis), but given it's a stupid as decision, I've elected to ignore it" thing fandom has going for shooting every even barely likeable character with a Gay Beam akdjajd. That's not really a trope as it is people in a group collectively deciding to project onto a bunch of lines and colors, but it never fails to make me laugh.

Explicit Found Family. Give It To Me.

Group chat/social media fics! some people are just so so so creative with both of them, especially the later, and it just tickles me pink every time

I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones off the top of my head!

V. A secondary (or underrated) character you want to see more of in fics?

Okay, for Animaniacs, I dunno what it is, but I really love Rita and Runt, and also Mindy and Buttons. Like, as characters. (Rita and Runt's segments were fun, but Mindy and Buttons' got repetitive and honestly, I didn't like seeing Buttons get beaten around all the time lol) I dunno just!!! I like them!!! I think they're neat!!! They've both got a cute relationship with their show partner and I dunno!!! They deserve more I guess akdjakdjs

For My Hero Academia, it's a little harder, bc I only read fics about Izuku, you know? akdjajs he's my BOY, like my MAIN boy, and if a fic isn't about him or one of his relationships, then I've lost interest akdkakdks. That said, I feel like there are a lot of characters that could vibe well with him that we rarely see! Like, Kirishima and him have very similar Sunshine Energy and they deserve to work together more. And him and Eri are!!! So cute!!!! PEAK found family potential there. And same with Kouta too! The first kid he saved (and adopted)!!!! I miss that little shit head lmaoooo.

Basically just; anyone that could mesh well with Izuku in fics SHOULD, and the fact is, Izuku meshes well with everyone because he's just so incredible, and everyone deserves to have a Life Changing Adventure with Izuku lmaooo.

Thanks so much PB!

Send me in some letters to ask questions about my fics!

#animaniacs #bnha #separated #bec speaks

[familyvisionis2020]

Day 6 - The Drive Home

Today was the last day of tour. I wake up in the morning feeling guilty because I have a groggy memory of waking up around 8 to go to the bathroom, Paul was waiting to go, but when the person came out I just fronted him (a word I just now remember from elementary school, cut in line, but southern), used the bathroom and went back to bed. Rude. I am wiping the cold from my eye, taking in the undecorated walls of the apartment, and Jeremy comes from down the hall and says ‘Did you get the memo? Louisville cancelled. Tour’s over.” I said ‘fuck’ and processed it. I feel sad for Jeremy and John and Kabir because I know they wanted to play this last show in Kentucky. It’s not that I didn’t, but also for the last three months and for especially the last month I have been feeling a tremendous amount of anxiety about this tour, about feeling out-of-control, about being away from loved ones at home, about being available to show up for people in my life, about completing regular routines of hygiene and spirituality and task completion that make me feel boring and comfortable, both. Touring stirs up dredges of the tea leaves that I had let settle into a fine filmy sediment at the bottom of me. I manufactured a jello mold two years ago and poured myself into it: regular 9-5 in the legal field as a means and precursor to law school, then diligent study for 3 years, then a professional career, abandoning the party life, abandoning trespassing in abandoned buildings, abondoning the luxury of resentment and unproductive time, trying to cool and firm into something reliable, serviceable, dependable, available, a resource people could draw from for once, rather than a leech or slug. And when I go on tour I take that jello mold out of the fridge and it holds its shape but also it warms and the longer I’m out the more liquidy it gets and sloshes over the sides and so forth. So I’m ambivalent because I like what I have to offer to this band, I like the physical process of drumming and expressing myself in the context of music and being a member of a band, but also I feel like I’ve kind of chilled enough and it’s time to settle down. And I’m at a way different point in my life than the other guys in the band it seems like, for the most part. So anyways all this to contextualize the fact that the news of tour ending even earlier than early honestly makes me feel relieved, if not happy, and so then I work to temper that boosted mood for the sake of grim decorum befitting a tour taken before its time. 

All our stuff is locked in the venue from last night and we learn we won’t be able to pick it up until 1pm and so we have about 4 hours to kill in the apartment. Phillip puts on a pot of coffee that will turn out to be some of the wateriest on record, but still, a super kind gesture, and then he also puts on The Wire on HBO Go and we just settle in on the couch and watch for awhile. Some of the scenes are familiar, there’s something seductive about this show, and it brings me back to the precise moment of Summer of 2013 right before I moved to Philadelphia right after I got evicted from the squat/music venue I had been living in that winter and spring, I watched all episodes of The Wire on DVD on Matt Martin’s couch at 3 Pomroy and felt deeply depressed. It ranks up there with when I watched all released episodes of The Office in bed in the winter of 2009 after my girlfriend broke up with me, in terms of memorably devestating life phases offset by the amniotic fluid of full-series of TV. So we watch The Wire and I find myself not too inclined to sit and watch and I want to write so I sit at my laptop on the table nearby and write an email to a female (sorry) but I actually do and its purpose is to make her smile and bring some levity and play and purple prose to a moment in her life that, from how she tells it to me, is just so heavy, nightmares and waking horror and a future that feels like it hangs by a thread. so I’m glad to spend time showing up for her in this small way rather than watching The Wire, and also I write yesterday’s blog post, another activity that feels sort of like a pittance but also like: doing-writing is something I have been putting off, in phases and seasons, for my entire adult life, because to me nothing ever matters enough to write about, or if it does my perspective is deficient, or my research inadequate, or my skill incommensurate with the subject matter, or it won’t properly reflect my feelings, or any number of self-sabotaging excuses to not do this thing I so love doing, and love sharing. So for me, writing this blog is a very meaningful and special act of reclamation of a personal mode of expression that constitutes a break in my winter’s depression and what feels like a new phase of happiness, of believing-i-have-a-future, of feeling more authoratative and qualified to know and describe my own experience in a lifetime marred and dampened by dissociation, oblivion, amnesia, and fugue. So it feels like nourishment to get some paragraphs done and to move slow through my days, get them onto the page.

The Wire grows tiresome at some point and Jeremy fires up the PS4 and then the PS3 looking for games but none are multiplayer and so eventually he settles on Skyrim and starts from a new file. Me personally I love watching let’s plays and this is as good as TV. There was a moment last tour when we were in this strange small town in Connecticut called Torrington (the town all touring bands are required to go to, we also joked), in this town Jeremy was describing the sort of surrealness he experienced there and he said he felt like the townspeople in Torrington were like NPCs in a FPS RPG like Skyrim wherein you would go up to people and press A to talk, say ‘What news?” and that I thought was really funny then, I like his sense of humor. Really Kabir and Jeremy and Royal represent this sort of humor that is to me equal parts razor wit, cleverness, timing, accents, absurdity, and broad conceptual placticity, all for the most part very clean too, never or at least rarely blue (you’re gonna inevitably make a D’s nuts joke and that’s just that). And during happy times I am so grateful to be nearby this humor and during less happy times I get self conscious about how great their humor is and how I sometimes feel like I don’t measure up. But that feeling doesn’t weigh for long. Skyrim is fun to watch, it kills some time, we all take turns trying to kill wolves with swords before Jeremy finally does it, there’s a dragon, we loot corpses, discuss Bloodborne and Dark Souls and comparable games. A lot of the main media activity in this group is discussing how a given media relates to another media, Kabir and Jeremy and John know it seems like everything between the three of them when it comes to record labels, band narratives, artist’s hometowns, etc. So we play Skyrim for awhile, and then eventually it’s time to go to the venue and we drive back to The Salty Nut, load in all our gear, do a final sweep, and say our goodbyes and thankyous to Phillip. We return to the Bandido place one last time for one last round of free local Taco Bell which we absolutely scarf and are very vocally grateful to the people for giving it to us for free again, it’s clear they really put effort into being hospitable to touring bands here, at least through Phillip. His band, Thomas Function, was signed on Fat Possum Records, which also had bigger indie acts like Jay Reatard (who Phillip tells a story about him demanding $50,000 in cash for a show fee to feed his coke and heroin habit, Reatard died at age 29 from cocaine toxicity with alcohol also), The Black Keys, Andrew Bird, Wavves and Soccer Mommy, but which Kabir postulates has most of its success due to having signed octogenarian southern blues legends like R.L. Burnside and King Ernest and raking in royalties from what Kabir speculates is due to poor management of the estates of these dead leagends who each had more than a dozen children. It’s truly fascinating for me to hear how deep and complex the analysis of music these guys have is. When I feel insecure, which is often, I tend to veneer these sorts of expertises and shibboleths among music-heads as snobby, elitist, exclusionary, petty and asinine. But I think most of that comes from a fear that I lack the insight, cognitive absorbency, and passionate research skills to collate and catalog data about artists in the way these people do, the way my bandmates do. I feel inspired to take time to dig deeper into the musicans I love, to make them real to me, to get a sense of their story, their lived experience, for the sake of corroding the mediation between us somewhat, or at least polishing the media membrane. 

I volunteer to drive for the first half of what will end up being about a 10-hour drive back from Huntsville to Chapel Hill. We go to a Whole Foods in Huntsville upon Kabir’s insistence where I purchase a nootropic snakeoil energy affair in beverage form, Kabir gets hot coffee and a La Colombe Draft can of latte, Jeremy gets a kombucha made from yerba mate (“best of both worlds” he says), John black coffee as per, and Kabir also buys a slice of Tres Leches cake in a clear plastic to-go clamshell: “they can take away my tour, but they can’t take away my tres leches.” Later he’s eating it in the van and he accidentally spills some on himself and he says “shit…spilled some on myself. oh good, it was only one leche” which to me is so funny and perfect humor and just like kind of a paragon of the kind of joke I so treasure from this friend group. Another is when Jeremy and Kabir are recalling a favorite running joke from two tours ago, wherein they were in Philly, home to the famous Schuykill River (pronounced skoo-kill, at least when i lived there, at least around the non-indigenous people i knew), and while there they would affect this blaring Brooklyn accent, deployed heavily on this trip as well for basically any purpose, but back then they would say “UGH MY SKOYKL IS KILLING ME” like Schuykill was lombago or sciatica and also would say “YEAH LET ME GET A KWATA POUND OF SKOYKL ON RYE” like it was a deli meat, and they laughed and laughed. Also they liked doing rhyming jokes like last night there was a chair nearby the combo amp Tired Frontier was going to use for their set and Kabir goes ‘amp on the chair, tone everywhere’ and then I say ‘amp on the ground, makes a bad sound’ and then I tell Jeremy later how Kabir would put me in good spirits whenever I was describing to someone how my LSAT score is very competitive but my checkered past makes the acceptance process a little less than straightforward, and Kabir would see I was getting kinda down and anxious, and he would say ‘You gotta break the law before you make the law,’ and we all laugh and I love that, the function of humor as balm, salve. I want to wield my humor like that.

The drive back is fine, some sprinkles, nothing major, clear traffic for the most part, I feel like I have a good command of the van, keep it around 75 for most of the trip, feel smoth and confident switching lanes, passing, etc. We do another two NYT Wednesday classic crosswords together, Kabir is getting probably 40% of the clues, me maybe 30% Jeremy and John the other 30%, Kabir will just to YEAHHHHHHHH after getting a clue and I start doing that too after Jeremy says “X down, ‘on the table’ 15 letters,” and I say UPFORDISCUSSION after only a couple seconds and it fits and is correct and I feel like a damn genius and we’re all laughing and kind of praising each other half-jokingly for being strong beautiful geniuses who also we know songs. This is a great passtime and the drive flies by and before I know it we’re in Western NC just outside of Asheville and we make a stop to refuel the tank and get dinner. We decide on a Waffle House across the street, not wanting to venture too deep into Asheville for something healthier and better because of the time and money it would likely eat up, Kabir says that FEMA uses the closing of Waffle Houses as a bellweather to indicate the severity of a given natural disaster. We go inside, the waitress says ‘ya’ll aren’t from around here are you?’ in a way that I take to be hostile and I suggest that to the guys and they seem like maybe slightly offput but not very much and we decide not to abort and I later feel foolish because I think I am doing this thing where I become excessively vigilant or sensitive to a perceived slight to a friend who is brown for the putative purpose of interceding on their behalf against racism but what’s actually happening is if someone was racist to them they could just stand up for themselves and make their own call regarding their own comfort or lack thereof and I would do better to act less motivated by white guilt when avoidable. That passes, it’s fine, we eat hash browns and waffles and eggs and grits and toast and cover everything in tobasco and tip well and get back on the road, John takes over for the final stretch. 

I return a call from Marty and catch him up about tour being cancelled and we discuss our fears and hysteria and cancellations and reaction and so forth. Marty remarks that he is a gravedigger during the plague, which is the best possible job to have. It’s not a joke because he actually drives a backhoe working for a cemetary and digs actual graves, super weird and eminently punk/goth and kind of a curiosity but really perfect for the lead singer of one of the South’s premiere punk bands, especially after his being fired from the swish cafe he worked at in Richmond before that. I love Marty and catching up and it feels good to hear his voice. After I get off the phone it sort of becomes campfire spooky story time in the van with everyone proffering their take on the panic, market failure, the likelihood of Capitalism as a superstructure to require perpetual growth even at the peril or death of its working class, the superior response to covid that South Korea and Norway seem to have mounted, a lot of fear of financial insecurity. Eventually this digresses to talk of touring, and the guys discuss all manner of various routes throught the South, Midwest, Northeast, plains states, PNW, Mexico City, Jeremy says ‘I can get us a show in Colombia’ which he can, Argentina or Venezuela through a mutual friend, then Europe so long as the label foots the bill for the plane ticket, then Japan, setting up camp on Honshu would make it easy to hit TOkyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Nagoya no problem, except where exactly are people playing shows? there’s gotta be somewhere all these Japanese Noise and Hardcore bands are getting gigs, and then from there of course it’s not hard to get to Australia, John knows a band there, and they go all around the world and this is stressing me out a little bit, only because I wonder about how much they think I would be involved or want to go on such a theoretical tour, and the answer is I don’t 100% know. Part of me wants to say this is my last tour, lean all the way in to law school and leave behind this chapter. Part of me feels like it’s better not to make a hard and fast statement like that because what if the economy collapses and for some reason school is a no-go but being in the band becomes the most plausible source of income or something. I get anxious and psych myself out and quiet down and feel foolish and wish to be home. I fantasize about my future life of stability, but I second guess myself because I just don’t know for sure how my life will be, and want to be careful to work toward the goals I think will be the most fulfilling, self-actualizing, spiritually nourishing, healthy for me; I also want to not forsake the friendships and bonds I’ve forged in these weird intimate moments in the van with the guys. I have the wherewithal to know that nobody is requiring me to make a decision right this second, and that as time passes it’s likely that the best course of action will be revealed one way or another if I can keep from panicking. So I watch videos of the 2019 Classic Tetris World Championships on my phone, eat two candy bars, watch videos of a streamer named Wumbotize play the latest Tetris game, Tetris Effect (2018, PS4, PC), and am pleasantly awed by how crazily far the skill curve of that game has shot up. I have some time ahead of me that is completely free, which is so nice. Before I know it I’m back home in my clean apartment which is tidy like a tetris field at the beginning of a new game and I get into my bed and lay down flat and if my bed is the well than the line of me clears and the well is clean, smooth, primed, for whatever falls tomorrow. 

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 25 March 2019

Quick Bits:

Action Comics #1009 takes a moment to assess the damage caused by Leviathan as Superman, Lois, Jimmy, and Waller try to put the pieces together in the Fortress of Solitude. More inventive use of Superman’s x-ray vision from Steve Epting and Brad Anderson.

| Published by DC Comics

Amazing Spider-Man #18 continues “Hunted” unveiling the Kraven-bots and plan for rich folks to hunt the animal-themed villains (and Spider-Man), but not exactly why. This one also falls into the clichéd trap of bringing back obscure z-list characters only to kill them in order to show the stakes. I’m kind of getting tired of that, but otherwise this is still entertaining. Great art from Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba, Edgar Delgado, and Erick Arciniega.

| Published by Marvel

Avengers: No Road Home #7 takes us inside Spectrum’s worries and fears about what she’s becoming as the team tries to prevent Nyx from reclaiming the shards. It really feels like the entire creative team have been stepping up their game these past few issues, but as Paco Medina and Jesus Aburtov take over the art reins again this issue, it feels like the bar has been raised again. Beautiful artwork.

| Published by Marvel

Bad Luck Chuck #1 is an entertaining and unique debut from Lela Gwenn, Matthew Dow Smith, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and Frank Cvetkovic. It stars Charlene Manchester, a seeming walking disaster, who has started up a business for the chaos her mere presence causes. It’s different, there’s some nice incidental humour and a hook for a broader story involving an insurance investigator tailing her, all with some wonderful art from Smith and Fitzpatrick.

| Published by Dark Horse

Batgirl #33 is pretty heavy as Babs deals with James being released. Great work all around from Mairghread Scott, Elena Casagrande, Scott Godlewski, John Kalisz, and Andworld Design really delivering on the heightened emotions Babs is going through with the release of her serial killer brother. Particularly the switch between blue and red washes Kalisz uses when Babs confronts her father.

| Published by DC Comics

Black Hammer: Age of Doom #9 continues through this bleak new world where almost everyone has forgotten who they were and there’s apparently a lot of gay panic, on Earth and Mars. It’s rather disturbing. Dean Ormston and Dave Stewart deliver some great moody art.

| Published by Dark Horse

Black Science #39 gives us a heartfelt and humorous reunion, possibly one of the final good moments before the series is going to pivot to the end. I get the feeling that Rick Remender, Matteo Scalera, Moreno Dinisio, and Rus Wooton are going to put us through hell reading the final arc, so this bit of happiness with some funny stories and at least a bit of retribution, is great to see. 

| Published by Image / Giant Generator

Coda #10 is huge as Si Spurrier, Matías Bergara, Michael Doig, and Jim Campbell work through some of the truth of what’s been driving this entire story. It’s damn good, with some of the best storytelling in comics right now.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Crimson Lotus #5 is one of two finales this week for a Hellboy universe mini-series, seeing the end to John Arcudi, Mindy Lee, Michelle Madsen, and Clem Robins’ tale of Crimson Lotus’ early days. I’ve loved the set up for Dai and Shengli in this series and definitely would not be averse to seeing more, there’s a nice feel of pulp action and mystery from a different perspective than what we’ve seen in Lobster Johnson. Also, there’s a great surprise appearance.

| Published by Dark Horse

Daredevil #3 is proving that Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Sunny Gho, and Clayton Cowles’ excellent first two issues are no fluke, “Know Fear” is easily shaping up to be one of the best Daredevil stories in decades. There’s a wonderful depth and complexity to the characters, the tension of a broken and beaten Daredevil coming into conflict with the police is taut, there are some amazing surprises, and the art is phenomenal.

| Published by Marvel

Dial H for Hero #1 is some ridiculous fun from Sam Humphries, Joe Quinones, and Dave Sharpe. We’re introduced to the new guardian of the H Dial, Miguel, an average boy forced to work his Uncle’s Mayo Madness food truck after what’s possibly the death of his parents (it’s not made explicit, so something else could have happened), searching for another thrill after being saved by Superman. Quinones’ art is one of the main drawing factors, with an incredible shift in style during the hero portion, both he and Humphries do an incredible job poking fun at the approach.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Doctor Strange #12 reunites Mark Waid and Barry Kitson for part one of “Herald Supreme” as a pushy, obnoxious alien steamrolls Strange in an attempt to stop Galactus from destroying his homeworld. It’s weird to see Strange brought low again so soon after the first arc, along with the destruction of all of the magic his artifacts house, but it is an interesting predicament he finds himself in struggling to stop Galactus from devouring the mystic planes.

| Published by Marvel

The Flash #67 builds off of last issue’s Rogues spotlight on the Trickster and the previous sub-plot of Commander Cold’s investigation as Joshua Williamson, Scott Kolins, Luis Guerrero, and Steve Wands kick off part one of “The Greatest Trick of All”. Kolins reminds us why he’s one of the best Flash artists of the past few decades amidst a story that is bizarrely happy.

| Published by DC Comics

The Forgotten Queen #2 reveals more of War-Monger’s history, as she navigates the possibility of feelings of love for what seems to be the first time. Really intriguing character-building here from Tini Howard, Amilcar Pinna, Ulises Arreola, and Jeff Powell.

| Published by Valiant

Friendo #5 concludes with what feels like one of the weirdest interpretations of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas I’ve ever read. The horror story of rampant consumerism mixed with reality television comes to a head as Leo finally gets his Action Joe action figure in possibly the most extreme way. Alex Paknadel, Martin Simmonds, Dee Cunniffe, and Taylor Esposito end this wild ride on a high note.

| Published by Vault

Go-Bots #5 is the incredible end to what has been an excellent series reinterpreting the Go-Bots by Tom Scioli. It started as a relatively normal interpretation of the property, working well with nostalgia while still presenting a unique rumination on free will and robot ethics, then elevated into all out insanity pushing the Go-Bots in new and frightening directions as the bots took over. This final issue explores that post-apocalypse further and cleverly seeds the idea that the Go-Bots were the progenitors to the Transformers.

| Published by IDW

Hellboy and the BPRD: 1956 #5 is the other conclusion in the Hellboy universe this week, detailing a bit more of Hellboy’s time in Mexico, particular after Esteban’s death and he was filming wrestling movies. There’s some wonderful character moments as he laments Esteban’s loss and the even more personal loss of his best friend and dog, Mac. It also underlines Bruttenholm’s lack of soft skills and empathy, not noticing either Margaret and Archie’s romance or how bad Hellboy is hurting emotionally right now. Great work from Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson, Mike Norton, Michael Avon Oeming, Yishan Li, Dave Stewart, and Clem Robins.

| Published by Dark Horse

Invaders #3 adds more fuel to the fire with an uncaring American military moving forward on a perceived and actual threat from Atlantis and more questions about Namor’s past and possible mental instability. Chip Zdarsky is doing some very interesting things with plot threads spilling out of Secret Empire and acting as essentially a bridge between Avengers and Captain America.

| Published by Marvel

Isola #7 sees our duo come across a quarry town full of women who’ve had their children and men snatched up by the war or worse. It’s an interesting development of the real human cost of war, but it also opens up a mystery as to what or who is really taking the kids, and what they’re possibly becoming. Brenden Fletcher, Karl Kerschl, Msassyk, and Aditya Bidikar continue to produce one of the most beautiful, intriguing, and entertaining comics on the shelves right now.

| Published by Image

The Lollipop Kids #4 has some absolutely stunning artwork from Diego Yapur and DC Alonso. Previous issues have been incredibly impressive, but some of the compositions in this one take it to a whole other level.

| Published by AfterShock

Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt #3 reveals just how thoroughly insane the Ozymandias-styled, world-“saving”, alternate Cannon is as Kieron Gillen, Caspar Wijngaard, Mary Safro, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou continue to push this story in intriguing directions. It’s funny, because the conflict, the superhero battles, feel like window-dressing for something else still. Especially as the “good” Cannon traverses panels.

| Published by Dynamite

Sabrina the Teenage Witch #1 is another entertaining debut under the new “Archie Forever” initiative, from Kelly Thompson, Veronica Fish, Andy Fish, and Jack Morelli. Like the previous titles, it appears as though there isn’t a lot (or possibly any) of overlap with the other series, introducing us to this rebooted Sabrina’s family. It’s off to a good start, familiar faces in play, humour abounding, Salem being a little bellend, and the mystery of a wendigo.

| Published by Archie

Sharkey: The Bounty Hunter #2 is worth it for Simone Bianchi’s gorgeous artwork alone. Bianchi has always been an interesting artist, with inventive layouts and character designs, rich colour choices, and a beautiful soft-focus, painted style, all of that on display here for this story. 

| Published by Image

The Silencer #15 is a bit bittersweet since we know that it’s ending now, I would have hoped given how tied to Leviathan that it is that the series would at least see a tie-in to the forthcoming Event Leviathan, but sadly no. In the mean time, we’re still getting an excellent action comic from Dan Abnett, V. Ken Marion, Sandu Florea, Mike Spicer, and Tom Napolitano.

| Published by DC Comics

Star Wars: Vader - Dark Visions #2 is another excellent self-contained story exploring Darth Vader’s effect on others, from Dennis Hallum, Brian Level, Jordan Boyd, and Joe Caramagna. This one takes a look at the desperation and recklessness that fear of Vader’s wrath can have on someone. The layouts from Level are phenomenal.

| Published by Marvel

Stone Star #1 is a great digital original debut from Jim Zub, Max Dunbar, Espen Grundetjern, and Marshall Dillon. It introduces us to a pair of scavengers on a planet being visited by a travelling battle arena ship, kind of taking its cue from hero shooters like Overwatch and more traditional fighting games like Mortal Kombat. There’s an interesting hook of human (or alien) trafficking to go along with the coming-of-age tale that’s set up as one of the scavengers, Dail, is offered a chance to possibly study and train with the gladiators. Great art and character designs from Dunbar and Grundetjern.

| Published by Swords & Sassery

Transformers #2 engaged me a bit more than the first issue. It’s still very methodical and slow in its pacing and revelations, but there are some interesting hooks in the mystery of who murdered Brainstorm and in who was taking potshots at the Ascenticon rally. The mix of politics and self-determination through will to power is certainly an interesting concept from Brian Ruckley.

| Published by IDW

William Gibson’s Alien 3 #5 concludes what has been an excellent adaptation of Gibson’s screenplay by Johnnie Christmas, Tamra Bonvillain, and Nate Piekos. This final chapter ramps up the action and the stakes as the remaining survivors try to flee the station before blowing it and the aliens inside up. Tons of great horrific art from Christmas and Bonvillain.

| Published by Dark Horse

Wonder Woman #67 continues “Giants War”, with G. Willow Wilson doing a decent job of further rehabilitating Giganta. Also some interesting developments regarding the titans that may not be titans.

| Published by DC Comics

Other Highlights: 30 Days of Night 100 Page Giant, The Avant-Guards #3, Beyonders #5, Black Panther #10, Black Widow #3, Bone Parish #8, Books of Magic #6, Breakneck #4, Cinema Purgatorio #17, Detective Comics #1000, DuckTales #19, Fantastic Four #8, Femme Magnifique: 10 Magnificent Women who Changed the World, Fight Club 3 #3, Freedom Fighters #4, GI Joe: Sierra Muerte #2, GLOW #1, Goddess Mode #4, Hardcore #4, Hex Wives #6, Ice Cream Man #11, Invader Zim #41, Ironheart #4, Jim Henson’s Beneath the Dark Crystal #8, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation #12, Jughead: The Hunger #13, Justice League Odyssey #7, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Tempest #5, Martian Manhunter #4, Marvel Comics Presents #3, Marvel Rising #1, Mera: Tidebreaker, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #37, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #41, Outcast #40, Punks Not Dead: London Calling #2, Quincredible #5, The Realm #12, Rick & Morty #48, Rick & Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: Director’s Cut #1, Sabrina: The Teenage Witch #1, These Savage Shores #1 - Black & White Edition, Spawn #295, Spider-Man/Deadpool #48, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #30, Star Wars Adventures #19, Super Sons: The Polarshield Project, Superior Spider-Man #4, TMNT: Urban Legends #11, The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion #5, Viking Queen, Wasted Space #8

Recommended Collections: Animosity: Evolution - Volume 2: Lex Machina, Asgardians of the Galaxy - Volume 1: Infinity Armada, The Ballad of Sang, Barrier - Limited Edition Slipcase Set, Charlie’s Angels - Volume 1, Cloak & Dagger: Negative Exposure, Coda - Volume 1, Flash - Volume 9: Reckoning of the Forces, Mind MGMT Omnibus - Volume 1, Ms. Marvel - Volume 10: Time and Again, Regression - Volume 3, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle - Volume 2, TMNT: Rise of the TMNT - Volume 1, War Bears

d. emerson eddy is just a worthless liar. He is just an imbecile. He will only complicate you. Trust in him and fall as well.

#This Week in Comics

[game-of-thrones-season]

Game of Thrones writer Bryan Cogman breaks down season 8, episode 2's big scenes

Bryan Cogman on the 'play-like' episode 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms': 'This is really a love letter to the characters'

By

James Hibberd

April 21, 2019 at 11:16 PM EDT

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HELEN SLOAN/HBO

Game of Thrones

TYPE

TV Show

GENRE

Drama,

Fantasy

NETWORK

HBO

Game of Thrones co-executive producer Bryan Cogman penned the second episode of the final season, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” which devoted an hour to quietly spending time with fan-favorite characters before their apocalyptic battle against the Army of the Dead. While fans expected the six-episode final season to be action-packed (and it will be), the producers also felt it was important to slow down and savor the show’s ensemble lineup of characters now that they’re together in one place and facing what is almost certainly their last night all together.

“This episode is really a love letter to the characters,” Cogman says. “With most of our battles you get about 15 minutes of calm-before-the-storm with the characters participating in that battle taking stock of where they are in their lives before the dam breaks. This is an entire episode of that so that episode 3 can hit the ground running.”

Below, Cogman (who previously wrote a terrific GoT re-watch viewing guide) gives some behind-the-scenes insight into some of the episode’s biggest moments…

— Jaime’s informal trial: “This was not unlike the trial episode I adapted with Tyrion in season 4. It was a chance to revisit Jaime’s arc and the different perspectives that they have about him. Brienne’s perspective mirrors the audience. One thing I have to remind myself is that not everyone on Game of Thrones is watching Game of Thrones. The characters only know what they know and they only know their own experiences, but the natural thing for you to want is to say, ‘they’re both good guys, just put aside your differences.’ What’s fun about Brienne’s testimony is she’s the only character who’s bore witness to the amazing changes Jaime’s gone through over the course of the season — apart from Tyrion who has his own reasons for loving his brother and knowing he’s different than how he’s perceived.”

— Jaime asking to serve under Brienne and Brienne being knighted. “Jaime does something here you would never expect the Jaime of season 2 to do. For Jaime, to humble himself to serve under anyone is a huge thing. He would never do that for anybody other than her. Jaime has been a knight of the Seven Kingdoms his whole life, but he’s finally becoming the knight he’s been chasing.” And later, Jaime knighting Brienne in the Great Hall: “We wanted to take the audience by surprise. It’s not a ceremonial scene on a cliff at sunset with billowing capes. It comes out of a throwaway moment that even some people in the room think is a joke and then they quickly realize it’s not. It’s a monumental thing. It’s a moment of grace and beauty in the middle of a nightmare and the main reason I wanted to write this episode. The episode’s title, ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,’ refers to both Jaime and Brienne.” (By and by, EW asked Brienne actress Gwendoline Christie which scene she’s most proud of in the entire series and she said it was this one. “I think the knighting scene,” Christie replied. “I thought about it so much and what it means to me conceptually. It’s so emotional for the character to get something she wants and to be acknowledged.”)

— Arya and The Hound: “Arya asks, ‘When have you fought for anything or anyone other than yourself,’ and The Hound says, ‘I fought for you.’ There were glimmers of ‘goodness’ — for lack of a better term — in The Hound before he encountered Arya — certainly in his occasional protection of Sansa. But that scene in season 4 when he fights for Arya he was protecting her in his mind. He believed Brienne was there to do her harm. The tragedy of that scene was, again, if they had just seen each other’s subplots they would know to work together. Yeah, The Hound is always going to be a killer, he’s never going to embrace the life of peace that Brother Ray was preaching. But that time with Brother Ray fundamentally changed him and the seed of that was protecting Arya which grew into who he is now.”

— Arya and Gendry: “We asked ourselves what a lot of these characters would do on their final night. For Arya, there’s an attraction to Gendry and she’s like, ‘If I’m going to die, I might as well see what all the fuss is about.’ She executes that encounter and Gendry is more than happy to go along. We were very careful to make sure Maisie [Williams] was comfortable and everything was on her terms. One thing I wrote specifically when crafting that scene is ‘Gendry notes her scars.’ They’re from all of Arya’s encounters but most specifically when The Waif tried to kill her. There are so many things Gendry doesn’t understand about Arya. They’re having this nice flirtation and have this own shared history they draw upon but she’s very different from the Arya he used to know. There’s an attraction for him, but she’s also a bit scary too.”

— Davos and Gilly tending to refugees: “The short little scene with Davos and Gilly tending to refugees streaming into Winterfell. They encounter a girl with half her face scarred who bears a resemblance to [Stannis Baratheon’s sacrificed daughter] Shireen. The name ‘Shireen’ is not said in the scene. But Shireen taught both Davos and Gilly how to read. This is an example of how brilliant [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] are. I wrote a scene where Davos and Gilly get on the subject of knowing how to read and then get on the subject of Shireen and how she taught them both. It was the right inspiration but it felt contrived. [With the showrunners’ notes it] evolved into this where the scene is absolutely about Shireen, but neither of them are aware of the impact she had on the other. It was a beautiful way of acknowledging all of these threads between all of these characters that many of them are not aware of and never will be aware of — only we as the audience have the privilege of being aware of them.”

— Podrick’s song: “Songs have been important in the past on the show, but they’re more present in [George R.R. Martin’s] books. Pod once again surprises us when we find out he has a lovely singing voice. It was fun to find a reason to get ‘Jenny of Oldstones’ [a.k.a. ‘Jenny’s Song’] in there in a way that feels organic and appropriate. It’s not something we normally do, but I think it works. Dan wrote the [bulk of the] lyrics — about it being warm and having fellowship together and how they wish it could last longer, but it’s not going to.” The song is also covered by Florence + the Machine in the closing credits.

— Jon tells Dany about his parentage. “Jon is avoiding Dany the whole episode because this bombshell has been dropped on him and he can’t even process how to be in the same room with her. She senses a strange tension and can’t understand why. What really upsets Jon is that he’s a blood relative to the woman he’s in love with. In the crypt, Jon is taken aback when essentially the first thing she says is acknowledging that he has a claim to the Iron Throne. And Jon’s immediate concern is the fact that that’s her immediate concern. [Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke] play it beautifully. It’s a very difficult scene to pull off; so much has to go on behind the eyes. But then the horn blasts and the Army of the Dead are at the gates.”

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is “almost like a play,” Cogman adds, an episode that he was eager to tackle yet proved to be a massive challenge. Cogman praised showrunners Benioff and Weiss for helping shape and edit the final script. “This was the most difficult script of the 11 I’ve written for Game of Thrones,” he says. “The big challenge was not writing a Wikipedia page. In fact, my first draft was a Wikipedia page. The way it works is the showrunners return a Final Draft document with notes written in red in the margins. They returned my first script with a sea of red.”

One suspects the episode will dramatically feel even stronger when watched in tandem with the next episode of season 8, which chronicles the Battle of Winterfell. “There was such a breakneck pace to season 7 that I was delighted when the [showrunners] proposed an episode of just spending time with characters in this space,” Cogman says. “I think it will make episode 3 — which is spectacular — all the richer. The moment that episode 3 starts we’re in full 100 percent battle mode.”

More Game of Thrones season 8, episode 2, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” coverage: — Maisie Williams discusses her surprise Gendry scene: ‘At first, I thought it was a prank…’ — Game of Thrones: Emilia Clarke defends Dany’s reaction to Jon’s parentage — Game of Thrones reveals big battle trailer for season 8, episode 3 — Game of Thrones releases ‘Jenny of Oldstones’ song performed by Florence + the Machine — Deep-dive recap for ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’

Game of Thrones

HBO’s epic fantasy drama based on George R.R. Martin’s novel series "A Song of Fire and Ice."TYPE

TV Show

SEASONS

7

EPISODES

67

GENRE

Drama,

Fantasy

RATING

TV-MA

RUN DATE

04/17/11

STATUS

On Hiatus

CREATOR

David Benioff,

D.B. Weiss

CAST

Kit Harington,

Emilia Clarke,

Peter Dinklage,

Lena Headey

NETWORK

HBO

AVAILABLE FOR STREAMING ON

COMPLETE COVERAGE

Game of Thrones

#MAANDO MBA #GAME OF THRONES