#my inspiration was somewhat drawn from the film ‘the shape of water’

[nohoney]

I have an idea, can we get siren (merman) Hawks and can it be smut/fluffy...please

-👁

i’ve never been one to be able to write about any fantasy creatures whatsoever but this was actually kind of fun (๑˃ᴗ˂)

warnings: oral sex (receiving), fingering (receiving), some dirty talk (imagined by the reader), a little bittersweet at the end sorry

The air is warm, sunlight peeks through the breaks of the trees, and you walk further down the path to the lake that you’ve been visiting since the beginning of spring last year. A picnic basket is carried by your side, it’s contents slightly rattling as you walk the paved dirt path. The straps of your dress fall down your shoulder every once in a while and you think that once you stop to rest that you should tighten the bows a little bit so that you’re not always adjusting them.

You break into a little jog once you see the end of the path despite your flip flops not being meant for more than a leisurely walk.

A small pond with a little waterfall is your destination. There’s a wooden dock that you can tell has been standing strong and shows no sign of giving way anytime soon. Perhaps in another fifty years it will start to show some wear but right now, it’s sturdy.

You sit at the very end of the dock, making sure to take your flip flops off first and setting your basket aside next to you. The water level has risen; you know this because last year the water only reached your ankle when you dipped your feet in and this year, the water is up last your calves. There was a lot of rain and while you’re grateful for it, you also don’t want it to submerge the dock either.

Kicking your feet in the water, it creates ripples and disturbs the water lilies nearby.

A head of blond hair pops out from the surface of the water, yellow eyes trained on you swimming beneath the surface to approach. “There you are,” you greet to your friend, “I brought a picnic for us today.”

The head disappears beneath the surface, leaving you alone for a few seconds, the splash of water and wet hands grip onto your calves. When you look down, you see the handsome face of man but beneath the surface of the water, he’s mythical.

Last year, you discovered him.

You moved to town two years ago in the winter and hadn’t made any friends yet. Loneliness settled heavily on you as you struggled to connect with the folks of this town but it’s hard to break into the inner circles of a place where the population is only used to knowing each other. In trying to make conversation with the townsfolk, you heard a lot of talk of avoiding the lake in the middle of the forest. That apparently some parents tried to drown their child in the lake and it came back as a ghastly creature to haunt the water and the surrounding shores of it as well.

You took their little fairytale as a bunch of hooey and decided to walk to that lake.

When you walked the path, it was no different than any trail you had been to before. However coming closer to the break in the trees, you saw a dock and someone swimming in the water. There was some wariness from you when you saw it was a man. Only his head popped up from the water and he seemed very focused on something in the tree branches that reached over the water.

You peered quietly at first, following his line of vision to see a hawk just perched on a tree branch.

When you called out, it startled both the bird and the young man. The hawk took flight and the man in the water was frightened by your presence. He was quick to look back at you before going into the water. You ran to the dock, shouting that you were friendly and your eyes were searching for air bubbles to find him. Your immediate action was to jump in after him.

It was the day you discovered that mermaids… or rather a merman was real.

He had a beautiful tail of red scales that shimmered underneath the sunlight and he seemed to have a liking for the hawk that circled the lake.

So you named him Hawks.

Unusual name for a sea creature but he responded to it once he had gotten used to your presence.

“Here, I brought you an egg today. Hard boiled this time.” You offered to Hawks, already having peeled the shell off. Last time you tried to give him soft boiled but he hated it. He looks reluctantly at it and shakes his head, a gesture that you had taught him since you found he had very little communication. “Oh don’t worry, it’s not runny like last time.”

To prove it, you bite into the top half of the bed. The yolk is firm and a little dry as you chew, but it’s for your friend and not yourself.

Hawks is still reluctant.

“If you don’t want it, that’s okay. But it just means that you won’t get your favorite,” you sing the last word and watch how he perks up, “chicken.”

Hawks grunts and pats his hand at your knee, almost as if he were a child. His hand reaches towards you, eager at the mention of his favorite food. You place the half eaten egg in his palm before pushing his hand back to him. You giggle when he pouts at the egg and looks back up at you; you can tell he feels a little betrayed.

“Just try it, okay? You know how to show me if you don’t like something right?”

You taught him small ways to communicate, often with simple hand gestures. If he doesn’t like something, he’s supposed to cover his mouth with his hand. If he does, he taps his lips twice and then points to what he likes.

Again, like a child, he takes the egg and chews with puffed up cheeks. As you wait for his evaluation, you reach for the plastic container inside the picnic basket but you don’t quite bring it out just yet. He needs to properly tell you whether he likes something or not.

Hawks seems to mull it over before putting his hand over his mouth.

“Okay, I won’t bring you eggs anymore then.” You say with a little confirming nod. The container from the picnic basket is brought out and Hawks bounces in the water in excitement. The little, excited grunts he makes make you shake your head with a smile. You hand him a hearty piece of cooked chicken and it’s practically snatched from you.

Nothing that you haven’t been used to for a good while now.

You give him pieces of chicken with one hand and feed yourself with a sandwich the the other. The sun is warm on your skin, the water is cool, and Hawks is nuzzling your shins as you finish feeding yourself once all the chicken was gone.

Slowly you start to pack up everything inside your picnic basket. You wished that you didn’t have to go, truthfully you hated leaving him by himself, but you still had a life to attend to. Plus also needing to cook his favorite foods as well. “Okay Hawks, I’ll try to see if I can stop by in a few days?”

You start to lift your legs out the water but Hawks hugs your legs to keep you in place.

When he does that, you know it’s because he’s feeling a little lonely.

“I’m sorry Hawks, I know you’re sad that I have to go. I’ll try to come the soonest I can, okay?” You apologize to him, reaching down cup his cheek. He leans into your palm, affectionately humming but whines sadly when you retreat your hand back. He taps his lips twice and points to you. “I like you too Hawks.”

Slowly, he parts your legs and pushes the skirt of your dress up. Again he taps his lips twice and points to in between your legs, this time sticking his tongue out.

“Oh… I don’t know about today.”

Aside from keeping his actual presence a secret, this of course stays strictly between the two of you. Not that Hawks had the capability of saying anything or anyone knew of his presence. Sometimes you laid in bed at night thinking about him, reminiscing how curious he is about your body and how you let him explore his curiosity.

Hawks repeats his action, his brows furrowing and insisting with a pout that is working its magic on you.

He ends up getting what he wants when he presses a kiss to your knee, looking at you through his eyelashes and humming.

“… Okay.”

You discard your dress and fold it neatly before setting it aside. Hawks has a smile on his face that you pretend to not see as you slip your underwear off your body. Your calves are used to the temperature of the water but you still let out a little squeal as you join him in the water.

Hawks swims up to you and shows how happy he is by giving you a hug, affectionately nuzzling your cheek. Even though you hadn’t necessarily planned to have this type of visit with him, a part of you is flattered that he has these kinds of feelings for you and wants to act on them.

He pulls back, only to give you a quick kiss on the lips, smiling at you before sinking beneath the water’s surface. His lips kiss at your tummy before sinking lower, his hands carefully holding your hips and pats your butt as a signal.

I’m going to start now.

You gasp when he shyly licks at you as just a little tease, focusing on the view ahead of you and at a water lily floating on the water. “Oh…” you whisper quietly as closes his mouth over your cunt, licking away at you with the same eagerness he was displaying before. “H-Hawks… oh fuck.”

If only there was some way for you to be able to breathe underwater with him. To see his face and what kind of expressions as he eats you out. He’s beautiful so you know that if you were to see him look up at you as he ate you out, he’d set the butterflies in your tummy fluttering.

When you first let him explore his curiosity, he was just as shy as you were. You could tell by his touches and he could tell by the way you’d jerk whenever you were unprepared to receive his touch. But at this point of your bond, the two of you were definitely used to each other.

Not to say that he didn’t make you flustered sometimes.

Hawks seemed to be able to express himself just fine without words and without difficulty. Something in his nature or perhaps you happened to sync well with him, the two of you were able to understand one another clearly. How was it the best communication you had in a relationship, it was with someone that couldn’t speak any discernible words at all?

“Oh god!” You gasp again before you let out a small moan. Hawks licks you enthusiastically, carefully pushing a finger into your pussy, something that he learned after observing you in the early stages of the two of you showing interest in one another. You remembered how you shyly opened your legs while sitting at the dock one day and confessing to him that you dreamt of him. You remember his curious eyes watching your fingers dip into your dripping cunt and just how fascinated he became.

Your head falls back and you dip one hand beneath the water to grasp at Hawks’ hair. You bite your bottom lip to try to keep your noises in even though you were more than sure that no one else except him would hear you.

Sometimes you wonder what he’d sound like if he was able to speak. You imagine his voice would be smooth, pleasing to your ears and that he could make you laugh. In your selfish little mind, he says all the right things that make your heart race.

You’re a good girl, my wonderful girl…

The tip of his tongue prods against your clit and you let out an audible moan into the air.

The way you sound is so sexy, I fucking love it!

Your hips rock into his mouth, almost like you’re riding his face. His hands are secure on holding your waist to help keep you afloat. Sparks of pleasure go up and down your body, your thighs slightly shaky as your orgasm starts build higher.

Sweet, precious thing… I adore you.

Your hand clenches into a fist and grabs a fistful of Hawks’ hair while your mouth drops into a silent ‘oh’. Your eyes flutter as you experience your high, still caught off guard over how well Hawks has learned how to make you cum. He was intelligent enough to discern that you were experiencing pleasure, smart enough to see if you were sad over something, and he always seemed to be looking into you just as you were looking into him.

He always looked like he was in wonder whenever he stared at you too long.

Hawks comes up from the water and you loop your arms around him in a hug, pressing a kiss to his cheek and just hanging onto him like a sloth. You were wanting to catch your breath. He doesn’t seem to be done with you just yet, sliding his hand between your bodies and pushes two fingers into your pussy. “Oh… you’re not done?” You ask but have difficulty keeping conversation when you’re still sensitive from an orgasm and he keeps curling his fingers into you.

Your body shudders as you let him finger you, a part of you wondering if he liked the feel of his fingers inside your warm cunt. More than a few times he’d point to in between your legs and hold up his middle and index finger up as a signal and pointing at himself. Eventually you had learned that it was his way of saying that he wanted to finger you.

“H-Hawks… are you done? I have to go back soon.” You whimper as he continues to tease his fingers against that spongy spot that makes you see heaven. Your cunt squeezes around his fingers and a big part of you wishes that he had a cock so that you could know what it was like to fuck him.

You could see him being a little whiny as he cums in you, lying back to let you take control as you ride him. You’d milk him dry and make a creamy mess on his dick, wanting to make him just as over sensitive in the same way he does it to you.

You wished that you could fuck Hawks.

Cumming a second time by his fingers, you pat at his shoulder and he retreats from you. This time, he returns your hug and holds you close. Your legs cross around his waist and you stay for a small moment just holding one another.

A kiss is pressed to your forehead.

I miss you already.

In return, you do the same to him.

I always miss you.

You wished that he could come with you.

You try hard to not look at him as you begin to get ready to leave because of the sad look in his eye. There are days that he seems to be okay as you head home, but others he makes it very known when he’s sad. And you know that the more time you spend together, each goodbye will get harder and more forlorn.

“Okay Hawks, I’m going to go now. I’ll try to visit soon.”

He nods his head, watching from the water as you take your picnic basket and the straps of your dress fall off your shoulder. You walk ahead and make sure to keep looking forward, eventually hearing when he dives under the water and you can let out the sad sigh you were holding in.

“I’ll visit you again soon.”

#i hope you liked 👁️ nonny! #my inspiration was somewhat drawn from the film ‘the shape of water’ #i wanted to keep it a little simple for this lil piece and i’m quite happy with it! #sorry for the lil bit of sad at the end i couldn’t come up with a fluffy ending (￣▽￣*)ゞ #hawks x reader #takami keigo x reader #hawks smut #k.inbox

[soulstolen]

trigger  warnings  for:  anxiety,  death,  grief,  ptsd,  and  murder.  june's  bio  was  crafted  by  me,  and  is  based  off  of  my  own  personal  headcanons  while  incorporating  some  content  from  the  suicide  squad  film  and  comics.  all  of  this  was  made  by  me  and  i  do  not  take  kindly  to  copying.  i  will  not  allow  inspiration  to  be  drawn  from  it  either.

june  moone  didn't  want  to  be  a  hero.  the  word  to  her  was  often  regarded  with  contempt  when  younger,  and  the  slightest  bit  of  revulsion,  because  they  tended  to  leave  a  string  of  deaths  in  their  wake.  they  seemed  to  wreak  havoc  more  than  bring  peace,  and  some  seemed  to  intimidate  her.  the  idea  of  them  didn't  bring  peace  to  her,  but  instead,  fear.

the  world  of  archaeology  sang  to  her,  as  did  the  world  of  nature.  there  was  emphasis  given  to  the  earth  and  her  blessings,  love  for  the  resources  that  were  crafted  by  the  hands  of  fate  herself,  and  june  gave  herself  completely  to  that.  dreams  came  to  her,  visions  of  temples  and  ruins  and  of  a  crumbling  empire,  of  sovereigns  that  sang  to  the  wind  and  water  and  earth,  and  it  influenced  her.  shaped  her.  she'd  been  selected  by  the  enchantress  to  be  a  vessel  from  her  childhood  and  it  was  foreshadowed  in  her  dreams  and  paintings.  dreams  of  the  empires  enchantress  owned,  paintings  of  the  lady  garbed  in  shadow,  of  the  cave  she'd  later  stumble  into  in  peru  at  twenty  six  ;  her  life  was  unfortunately  never  hers,  and  even  when  younger,  she  was  selected  and  guided  towards  a  direction  she  may  not  have  chosen  for  herself.

her  teens  were  lost  to  academia,  spent  poring  over  endless  books  and  studying  until  she  fell  asleep,  more  often  than  not  with  her  nose  pressed  against  the  pages  of  a  thick  book.  she  graduated  high  school  at  sixteen,  earned  her  bachelors  at  nineteen,  and  got  her  masters  at  twenty  two.  the  years  spent  in  gotham  were  difficult,  traumatizing,  and  gave  her  a  rather  jaded  personality.  gone  was  the  june  that  was  ebullient  and  radiant  and  emanating  kindness,  and  in  her  place  was  a  somewhat  reserved,  even  slightly  timid  woman  who  tended  to  shy  away  from  longer  conversations.  gotham  had  almost  broken  her,  and  the  violent  crime  she'd  witnessed  and  been  subject  to  had  broken  the  part  of  her  that  had  forever  been  optimistic  and  hopeful.

her  nightmares  grew  worse  when  she  worked  on  her  phd  ;  and  despite  the  rigorous  program  she  was  in,  she  took  months  off  from  academia,  losing  herself  to  nightmares  and  voices  in  her  head,  some  demanding  that  she  go  to  peru,  that  she  discover  the  artifacts  that  led  to  an  old  and  forgotten  temple  that  archaeologists  hadn't  found  yet.  she  spent  those  months  instead  in  metropolis,  cooped  up  in  her  childhood  bedroom,  painting  and  painting  and  painting,  until  it  was  all  she  did.  until  all  she  did  was  catalogue  and  breathe  color.  but  every  canvas  was  the  same  ;  shadows  and  flickers  of  molten  ruby,  some  of  a  woman  who  hid,  others  of  the  silhouette  of  a  man  with  broad  shoulders.

she  went  back  to  academia  when  they  eased  up  on  her  ;  but  a  week  after,  they  returned  back  in  full  force,  if  not  worse.  she  still  graduated  and  gained  her  phd,  but  then  there  was  the  obssession  that  came  with  finding  that  temple  in  peru  ;  it  was  all  she  could  dream  about,  all  she  could  think  of.  and  so  the  ties  with  her  family  began  to  fray  there.  no  longer  did  she  talk  to  august,  her  older  brother,  daily.  rarely  did  she  have  the  time  to  pick  up  the  phone  and  call  her  parents.  instead  she  focused  on  an  obssession  she  did  not  understand  but  had,  and  that  was  finding  the  temple  that  housed  the  enchantress.

her  possession  was  swift  and  left  her  out  for  weeks.  while  she  slumbered  peacefully,  the  enchantress  ravaged  the  villages  near  where  she'd  been  found,  murdering  men  and  marking  them  on  the  forehead  with  her  symbol.  but  enchantress  seemingly  had  a  plan  for  everything.  and  while  she  possessed  june  against  her  will,  she  did  not  harbor  ill  will  towards  her  ;  she  held  a  love  for  her,  and  wanted  what  was  best  for  the  woman.  she  heard  from  the  wind  that  colonel  rick  flag  was  on  the  hunt  for  the  murderer  that  left  the  bodies  behind,  and  she  set  it  up  so  that  june  was  found  within  a  tub  filled  with  onyx  water,  and  of  course,  discovered  by  the  colonel  himself.

the  enchantress  knew  what  rick  would  become  to  june  ;  and  she  hoped  that  in  allowing  the  two  to  find  one  another  (  and  their  future  love  ),  it  would  show  june  that  the  two  were  on  the  same  side.  that  she  only  wanted  to  help  the  archaeologist.  but  what  she  didn't  anticipate  was  how  badly  she'd  broken  june,  how  she'd  traumatized  her  to  the  point  where  the  woman  seemingly  rejected  the  world  around  her.  the  witch  had  taken  her  from  everything  she'd  known  in  life,  from  what  had  seemingly  given  her  purpose.  never  mind  that  she  had  planted  the  love  of  archaeology  in  june's  head.  june  did  not  sleep  nor  eat  in  the  first  few  days  she  spent  cooped  up  in  the  apartment  with  the  colonel  ;  she  made  no  attempt  to  figure  out  what  had  happened  to  her,  and  gave  up.  she  didn't  know  how  to  live  anymore.  how  to  cope  with  the  loss  of  the  obssesion,  or  what  to  do  with  the  knowledge  that  her  body  was  not  hers  anymore,  or  that  she'd  been  taken  from  the  normal  life  that  she'd  owned  and  thrust  into  another  world,  one  that  she  tried  her  best  to  avoid.

rick  flag  crept  up  on  her,  with  his  wry  sense  of  humor  and  his  ability  to  keep  her  from  falling  apart.  he  kept  her  alive  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  and  brought  her  back  from  the  darkness,  all  by  distracting  her.  by  trying  to  bring  any  sort  of  emotion  from  her,  by  trying  to  keep  her  afloat  in  a  sea  of  misery  and  pain  and  grief.  but  even  with  that  love  came  pain,  because  there  were  moments  where  enchantress  argued  with  june,  where  she  tried  to  reason  with  her,  tried  to  beg  for  control  ;  she  believed  in  a  world  where  metahumans  were  no  longer  prosecuted,  and  she  thought  that  june  would  too.  but  that  was  not  the  case.  and  after  the  enchantress  went  silent,  june  assumed  she  left.  but  instead,  she  was  preparing  herself  to  take  over  the  city  of  midway,  and  with  it,  june's  body.  and  it  was  all  unbeknownst  to  june,  who  was  sent  into  an  eternal  slumber  anytime  the  spellcaster  took  over  her  body.

midway  wrecked  june  ;  and  when  she  woke  after  the  city  had  been  decimated,  with  no  recollection  of  what  had  happened,  she  rejected  the  world  once  more.  almost  rejected  rick  flag.  never  mind  that  her  family  never  heard  from  her  after  what  had  happened  in  peru  ;  they  assumed  she  was  dead,  and  she  wanted  rick  to  believe  that  too.  she  was  then  diagnosed  with  ptsd,  depression,  and  anxiety.  the  months  following  were  silent,  with  not  even  a  hint  of  a  whisper  from  the  enchantress,  who  she  assumed  died  in  the  final  events  of  the  retaking  of  the  city.  still,  rick  flag  did  not  leave  her.  did  not  give  up  on  her.  and  when  she  began  to  slowly  make  her  way  back  into  the  world,  still  mourning  the  life  she  had  lost  and  coping  with  survivor's  guilt,  she  had  yet  another  dream.  and  at  that  point,  she  came  into  contact  with  a  spellcaster  she'd  found  prior.  he  crafted  an  amulet  for  her  that  kept  the  enchantress  from  ever  regaining  control  of  her  body.

but  what  june  did  not  know  was  that  the  enchantress  didn't  want  control  again  ;  instead  she  merely  wanted  to  merge  with  june,  to  allow  her  access  to  her  infinite  pool  of  power.  in  return  she  demanded  that  june  protect  the  world  from  magic  users  that  threatened  to  disturb  the  balance  of  the  metaphysical  plane,  but  also  to  use  her  magic  for  good.  to  become  a  hero.  but  june  didn't  want  that.  all  her  life,  however,  she'd  been  a  protector.  someone  who  looked  out  for  others.  but  the  world  hero  didn't  hold  the  same  conotation.  if  anything,  it  felt  more  weighty.  more  difficult.  so  she  merely  did  all  that  she  could  to  resume  a  regular  life.

she  found  out  rather  quickly  that  she  would  not  be  able  to  go  on  an  excavation,  not  at  all,  not  when  her  wounds  were  still  fresh  and  her  trauma  still  blinding.  instead,  she  joined  the  staff  at  metropolis  university  and  assumed  an  adjunct  professor  role  at  gotham  city  university.  during  the  day  she  was  professor  june  moone,  but  at  night  she  was  the  spellcaster,  a  woman  learning  the  arcane  arts  that  she  could  not  ignore.  and  despite  the  aversion  she'd  held  towards  it,  she  found  that  .  .  .  she  wanted  to  possess  her  magic.  wanted  to  cherish  what  had  been  given  to  her,  because  it  was  the  only  thing  she  held  control  of  in  her  life.  she  had  lost  almost  everything  else,  but  this  little  thing  was  completely  and  utterly  hers.  

and  so  she  began  to  learn  her  magic,  began  to  grow  in  power,  and  while  doing  so  began  to  also  work  once  again  with  the  suicide  squad  and  even  justice  league.  her  immense  power  protected  her  from  being  forced  into  any  organization,  but  also  seemed  to  gather  their  attention  ;  her  freedom  was  given  if  she  promised  to  offer  aid  should  they  need  a  spellcaster  of  her  power.  her  main  focus,  however,  was  on  keeping  her  promise  to  the  enchantress,  and  that  was  protecting  the  world  of  magic.  in  keeping  balance  and  order,  but  also  even  using  her  magic  to  help  others.  she  became  known  as  the  gotham  witch,  a  figure  in  the  night  who  appeared  sporadically  and  helped  those  who  needed  it.

all  the  while,  her  and  rick  lived  in  her  manor  on  the  outskirts  of  metropolis.  sometimes  they  went  on  missions  together.  other  times  one  went  while  the  other  stayed.  but  that  never  really  seemed  to  change  anything,  not  when  both  knew  that  they  always  had  the  other  to  come  home  to.  when  he  passed,  june  lost  herself  again.  and  she  withered  in  her  grief,  completely  shutting  out  the  world,  refusing  to  even  speak  to  the  enchantress  herself.  months  passed  and  she  became  skin  and  bones,  but  it  was  the  enchantress  who  roused  her  from  her  stupor,  who  roared  and  roared  and  roared  at  her  in  the  eternal  darkness,  refusing  to  leave  her,  never  giving  up.  

but  it  came  at  a  cost  ;  and  june  was  reckless  when  she  remerged  from  her  seclusion,  less  prudent.  she  was  a  vigilante  of  sorts,  a  woman  who  feared  no  one,  who  wanted  the  world  to  pay  the  way  she  had.  it  wasn't  fair  that  she  continued  to  give  when  all  the  world  did  was  take.  it  wasn't  fair  that  she'd  never  had  control  of  her  life,  that  she'd  never  had  the  choice  to  do  what  she  wanted.  

but  eventually,  like  all  things,  it  came  to  an  end.  and  she'd  visited  rick,  had  spoken  to  his  soul,  had  seen  him  in  hear  dreams.  and  even  in  death  he  seemed  to  bring  her  back.  but  he  warned  her  that  he  would  have  to  leave  her  again  ;  that  he  could  no  longer  stick  around.  that  he  had  to  finally  let  go  of  the  world  and  truly  fade  into  the  afterlife.

and  when  rick  flag  left  to  the  afterlife,  june  reemerged  from  the  ashes  like  a  phoenix.  

[gp-synergism-blog]

Gothic Film in the ‘40s: Doomed Romance and Murderous Melodrama

Posted by: Samm Deighan for Diabolique Magazine

Secret Beyond the Door (1947)

In many respects, the ‘40s were a strange time for horror films. With a few notable exceptions, like Le main du diable (1943) or Dead of Night (1945), the British and European nations avoided the genre thanks to the preoccupation of war. But that wasn’t the case with American cinema, which continued to churn out cheap, escapist fare in droves, ranging from comedies and musicals to horror films. In general though, genre efforts were comic or overtly campy; Universal, the country’s biggest producer of horror films, resorted primarily to sequels, remakes, and monster mash ups during the decade, or ludicrous low budget films centered on half-cocked mad scientists (roles often hoisted on a fading Bela Lugosi).

There are some exceptions: the emergence of grim-toned serial killer thrillers helmed by European emigres like Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Ulmer’s Bluebeard(1944), Siodmak’s The Spiral Staircase (1945), or John Brahm’s Hangover Square(1945); the series of expressionistic moody horror film produced by auteur Val Lewton, such as Cat People (1942) and I Walked with a Zombie (1943); and a handful of strange outliers like the eerie She-Wolf of London (1946) or the totally off-the-rails Peter Lorre vehicle, The Beast with Five Fingers (1946).

Thanks to the emergence of film noir and a new emphasis on psychological themes within suspense films, horror’s sibling — arguably even its precursor — the Gothic, was also a prominent cinematic force during the decade. One of the biggest producers of Gothic cinema came from the literary genre’s parent country, England. Initially this was a way to present some horror tropes and darker subject matter at a time when genre films were embargoed by a country at war, but Hollywood was undoubtedly attempting to compete with Britain’s strong trend of Gothic cinema: classic films like Thorold Dickinson’s original Gaslight (1940); a series of brooding Gothic romances starring a homicidal-looking James Mason, like The Night Has Eyes (1942), The Man in Grey(1943), The Seventh Veil (1945), and Fanny by Gaslight (1944); David Lean’s two best films and possibly the greatest Dickens adaptations ever made, Great Expectations(1946) and Oliver Twist (1948); and other excellent, yet forgotten literary adaptations like Uncle Silas (1947) and Queen of Spades (1949).

The American films, which not only responded to their British counterparts but helped shape the Gothic genre in their own right, tended towards three themes in particular (often combining them): doomed romance, dark family inheritances often connected to greed and madness, and the supernatural melodrama. Certainly, these film borrowed horror tropes, like the fear of the dark, nightmares, haunted houses, thick cobwebs, and fog-drenched cemeteries. The home was often set as the central location, a site of both domesticity and terror — speaking to the genre’s overall themes of social order, repressed sexuality, and death — and this location was of course of equal importance to horror films and the ��woman’s film” of the ‘40s and ‘50s. Like the latter, these Gothic films often featured female protagonists and plots that revolved around a troubled romantic relationship or domestic turmoil.

Wuthering Heights (1939)

Two of the earliest examples, and certainly two films that kicked off the wave of Gothic romance films in America, are also two of the genre’s most enduring classics: William Wyler’s Wuthering Heights (1939) and Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940). Based on Emily Brontë’s novel of the same name (one of my favorites), Wyler and celebrated screenwriter Ben Hecht (with script input from director and writer John Huston) transformed Wuthering Heights from a tale of multigenerational doom and bitterness set on the unforgiving moors into a more streamlined romantic tragedy about the love affair between Cathy (Merle Oberon) and Heathcliffe (Laurence Olivier) that completely removes the conclusion that focuses on their children. In the film, the couple are effectively separated by social constraints, poverty, a harsh upbringing, and the fact that Cathy is forced to choose between her wild, adopted brother Heathcliffe and her debonair neighbor, Edgar Linton (David Niven).

Wuthering Heights is actually less Gothic than the films it inspired, primarily because of the fact that Hollywood neutered many of Brontë’s themes. In The History of British Literature on Film, 1895-2015, Greg Semenza and Bob Hasenfratz wrote, “Hecht and Wyler together manage to transfer the narrative from its original literary genre (Gothic romance) and embed it in a film genre (the Hollywood romance, which would evolve into the so-called ‘women’s films’ of the 1940s)… [To accomplish this,] Hecht and Wyler needed to remove or tone down elements of the macabre, the novel’s suggestions of necrophilia in chapter 29, and its portrayal of Heathcliffe as a kind of Miltonic Satan” (185).

This results in sort of watered down versions of Cathy — who is selfish and cruel as a general rule in the novel — and, in particular, Heathcliffe, whose brutish behavior includes physical violence, spousal abuse, and a drawn out, well-plotted revenge that becomes his sole reason for living. It is thus in a somewhat different — and arguably both more terrifying and more romantic — context that the novel’s Heathcliffe declares to a dying Cathy, “Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living. You said I killed you–haunt me then. The murdered do haunt their murderers. I believe–I know that ghosts have wandered the earth. Be with me always–take any form–drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!” (145).

Despite Hollywood’s intervention, the novel’s Gothic flavor was not scrubbed entirely and Wuthering Heights still includes themes of ghosts, haunting, and just the faintest touch of damnation, though it ends with a spectral reunion for Cathy and Heathcliffe, whose spirits set off together across the snow-covered moors. These elements of a studio meddling with a film’s source novel, doomed romance, and supernatural tones also appeared in the following year’s Rebecca, possibly the single most influential Gothic film from the period. This was actually Hitchcock’s first film on American shores after his emigration due to WWII, and his first major battle with a producer in the form of David O. Selznick.

Rebecca (1940)

Based on Daphne du Maurier’s novel of the same name, Rebecca marks the return of Laurence Olivier as brooding romantic hero Maxim de Winter, the love interest of an innocent young woman (Joan Fontaine) traveling through Europe as a paid companion. She and de Winter meet, fall in love, and are quickly married, though things take a dark turn when they move to his ancestral home in England, Manderlay, which is everywhere marked with the overwhelming presence of his former wife, Rebecca. The hostile housekeeper (Judith Anderson) is still obviously obsessed with her former mistress, Maxim begins to act strangely and has a few violent outbursts, and the new Mrs. de Winter begins to suspect that Rebecca’s death was the result of a homicidal act…

The wanton or mad wife was a feature not only of Rebecca, but of earlier Gothic fiction from Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre to “The Yellow Wallpaper.” In the same way that Cathy of Wuthering Heights is an example of the feminine resistance to a claustrophobic social structure, Rebecca is a similar figure, made monstrous by her refusal to conform. The dark secret that Maxim’s new wife learns is that Rebecca was privately promiscuous, agreeing only to appear to be the perfect wife in public after de Winter already married her. She pretends she is pregnant with another man’s child and tries to goad her husband into murdering her, seemingly out of sheer spite, but it is revealed that she was dying of cancer.

A surprisingly faithful adaptation of the novel, Rebecca presents the titular character’s death as a suicide, rather than a murder, thanks to the Production Code’s insistence that murderers had to be punished, contrary to the film’s apparent happy ending, and restricted the (now somewhat obvious) housekeeper’s lesbian infatuation for Rebecca. Despite these restrictions, Hitchcock managed to introduce some of the bold, controversial themes that would carry him through films like Marnie (1964). For Criterion, Robin Wood wrote, “it is in Rebecca that his unifying theme receives its first definitive statement: the masculinist drive to dominate, control, and (if necessary) punish women; the corresponding dread of powerful women, and especially of women who assert their sexual freedom, for what, above all, the male (in his position of dominant vulnerability, or vulnerable dominance) cannot tolerate is the sense that another male might be “better” than he was. Rebecca is killed because she defies the patriarchal order, the prohibition of infidelity.”

Wood also got to the crux of many of these early Gothic films (and the Romantic/romantic novels that inspired them) when he wrote, “The antagonism toward Maxim we feel today (in the aftermath of the Women’s Movement) is due at least in part to the casting of Olivier; without that antagonism something of the film’s continuing force and fascination would be weakened.” Heathcliffe and de Winter are similarly contradictory figures: romantic, but also repulsive, objects of love and fear in equal measures, they mirror the character type popularized in England by a young, brooding James Mason — an antagonistic, almost villainous (and sometimes actually so) male romantic lead — that would appear in a number of other titles throughout the decade.

Rebecca (1940)

In “‘At Last I Can Tell It to Someone!’: Feminine Point of View and Subjectivity in the Gothic Romance Film of the 1940s” for Cinema Journal, Diane Waldman wrote, “The plots of films like Rebecca, Suspicion, Gaslight, and their lesser-known counterparts like Undercurrent and Sleep My Love fall under the rubric of the Gothic designation: a young inexperienced woman meets a handsome older man to whom she is alternately attracted and repelled. After a whirlwind courtship (72 hours in Lang’s Secret Beyond the Door, two weeks is more typical), she marries him. After returning to the ancestral mansion of one of the pair, the heroine experiences a series of bizarre and uncanny incidents, open to ambiguous interpretation, revolving around the question of whether or not the Gothic male really loves her. She begins to suspect that he may be a murderer” (29-30).

As Waldman suggests, there are many films from the decade that fit into this type: notable examples include Hitchcock’s Suspicion (1941), where Joan Fontaine again stars as an innocent, wealthy young woman who marries an unscrupulous gambler (Cary Grant) who may be trying to kill her for her fortune; Robert Stevenson’s Jane Eyre (1943) yet again starred Fontaine as the innocent titular governess, who falls in love with her gloomy, yet charismatic employer, Mr. Rochester (Orson Welles); George Cukor’s remake of Gaslight (1944) starred Ingrid Bergman as a young singer driven slowly insane by her seemingly charming husband (Charles Boyer), who is only out to conceal a past crime; and so on.

Another interesting, somewhat unusual interpretations of this subgenre is Experiment Perilous (1944), helmed by a director also responsible for key film noir and horror titles such as Out of the Past, Cat People, and Curse of the Demon: Jacques Tourneur. Based on a novel by Margaret Carpenter and set in turn of the century New York, Experiment Perilous is a cross between Gothic melodrama and film noir and expands upon the loose plot of Gaslight, where a controlling husband (here played by Paul Lukas) is trying to drive his younger wife (the gorgeous Hedy Lamarr) insane. The film bucks the Gothic tradition of the ‘40s in the sense that the wife, Allida, is not the protagonist, but rather it is a psychiatrist, Dr. Bailey (George Brent). He encounters the couple because he befriended the husband’s sister (Olive Blakeney) on a train and when she passes away, he goes to pay his respects. While there, he he falls in love with Allida and refuses to believe her husband’s assertions that she is insane and must be kept prisoner in their home.

In some ways evocative of Hitchcock (a fateful train ride, a psychiatrist who falls in love with a patient and refuses to believe he or she is insane), Experiment Perilous is a neglected, curious film, and it’s interesting to imagine what it would have been if Cary Grant starred, as intended. It does mimic the elements of female paranoia found in films like Rebecca and Gaslight, in the sense that Allida believes she has a mysterious admirer and, as with the later Secret Beyond the Door, she’s tormented by the presence of a disturbed child; though Lamarr never plays to the level of hysteria usually found in this type of role and her performance is both understated and underrated.

Experiment Perilous (1944)

Tourneur was an expert at playing with moral ambiguities, a quality certainly expressed in Experiment Perilous, and the decision to follow the psychiatrist, rather than the wife, makes this a compelling mystery. Like Laura, The Woman in the Window, Vertigo, and other films, the mesmerizing portrait of a beautiful woman is responsible for the protagonist becoming morally compromised, and for most of the running time it’s not quite clear if Bailey is acting from a rational, medical premise, or a wholly irrational one motivated by sexual desire. Rife with strange diary entries, disturbing letters, stories of madness, death, and psychological decay, and a torrid family history are at the heart of the delightfully titled Experiment Perilous. Like many films in the genre, it concludes with a spectacular sequence where the house itself is in a state of chaos, the most striking symbol of which is a series of exploding fish tanks.

But arguably the most Gothic of all these films — and certainly my favorite — is Fritz Lang’s The Secret Beyond the Door (1947). On an adventure in Mexico, Celia (Joan Bennett), a young heiress, meets Mark Lamphere (Michael Redgrave), a dashing architect. They have a whirlwind romance before marrying, but on their honeymoon, Mark is frustrated by Celia’s locked bedroom door and takes off in the middle of the night, allegedly for business. Things worsen when they move to his mansion in New England, where she is horrified to learn that she is his second wife, his first died mysteriously, and he has a very strange family, including an odd secretary who covers her face with a scarf after it was disfigured in a fire; he also has serious financial problems. During a welcoming party, Mark shows their friends his hobby, personally designed rooms in the house that mimic the settings of famous murders. Repulsed, Celia also learns that there is one locked room that Mark keeps secret. As his behavior becomes increasingly cold and disturbed she comes to fear that he killed the first Mrs. Lamphere and is planning to kill her, too.

A blend of “Bluebeard,” Rebecca, and Jane Eyre, Secret Beyond the Door is quite an odd film. Though it relies on some frustrating Freudian plot devices and has a number of script issues, there is something truly magical and eerie about it and it deserves as far more elevated reputation. Though this falls in with the “woman’s films” popular at the time, Bennett’s Celia is far removed from the sort of innocent, earnest, and vulnerable characters played by Fontaine. Lang, and his one-time protege, screenwriter Silvia Richards, acknowledge that she has flaws of her own, as well as the strength, perseverance, and sheer sexual desire to pursue Mark, despite his potential psychosis.

This was Joan Bennett’s fourth film with Fritz Lang – after titles like Man Hunt (1941), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Scarlet Street (1945) — and it was to be her last with the director. While her earlier characters were prostitutes, gold diggers, or arch-manipulators, Celia is more complex; she is essentially a spoiled heiress and socialite bored with her life of pleasure and looking to settle down, but used to getting her own way and not conforming to the needs of any particular man. (Gloria Grahame would go on to play slightly similar characters for Lang in films like The Big Heat and Human Desire.) In one of Celia’s introductory scenes, she’s witness to a deadly knife fight in a Mexican market. Instead of running in terror, she is clearly invigorated, if not openly aroused by the scene, despite the fact that a stray knife lands mere inches from her.

Secret Beyond the Door (1947)

Like some of Lang’s other films with Bennett, much of this film is spent in or near beds and the bedroom. The hidden bedroom also provides a rich symbolic subtext, one tied in to Mark’s murder-themed rooms, the titular secret room (where his first wife died), and the burning of the house at the film’s conclusion. Due to the involvement of the Production Code, sex is only implied, but modern audiences may miss this. It is at least relatively clear that Mark and Celia’s powerful attraction is a blend of sex and violence, affection and neurosis. As with Rebecca and Jane Eyre, it is implied that the fire — the act of burning down the house and the memory of the former love (or in Jane Eyre’scase, the actual woman) — has cleansing properties that restore Mark to sanity. It is revealed that though he did not commit an actual murder, the guilt of his first wife’s death, brought on by a broken heart, has driven him to madness and obsession.

This really is a marvelous film, thanks Lang’s return to German expressionism blended with Gothic literary themes. There is some absolutely lovely cinematography from Stanley Cortez that prefigured his similar work on Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter. In particular, a woodland set – where Celia runs when she thinks Mark is going to murder her – is breathtaking, eerie, and nightmarish, and puts a marked emphasis on the fairy-tale influence. But the house is where the film really shines with lighting sources often reduced to candlelight, reflections in ornate mirrors, or the beam of a single flashlight. The camera absolutely worships Bennett, who is framed by long, dark hallways, foreboding corridors, and that staple of film noir, the winding staircase.

[sultanofwysdem]

My Oscar Opinions! Yay

The Oscars were two nights ago, and I want to write about them before they become obsolete (maybe too late lol). Overall, I’m happy with the results, even though my #1 fav didn’t win anything, despite Greta Gerwig being praised throughout the evening. Here’s my ranking of the the nine Best Picture noms in order of how I like them (excluding Dunkirk, which I didn’t see; sue me).

#8: Darkest Hour

Despite an obviously career defining performance by Gary Oldman, the film itself serves as a mere vehicle for his acting choices. The other characters, besides Stannis Baratheon, seem one dimensional; the best part of it is the ad campaign promoting the movie, saying it’s a much needed portrait of good leadership in today’s day and age. Not the best when the advertising is better than the film. Congrats Sirius Black.

#7: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

The most problematic of the bunch. When I first saw Three Billboards, I didn’t hate it, and I don’t now. But the polarizing flaws of this film are worth discussion. The affably comedic portrayal for much of the movie of Sam Rockwell’s award winning police officer, and his racism, sexism, and homophobia was off-putting. While these actions weren’t redeemed, the character somewhat was, and the resulting tone left much to be desired and some awkward mixed messaging. As a friend of mine said, it should have been a play. I am a fan of McDonagh’s plays, and I have to agree. That being said, this film provided a tour de force performance from Frances McDormand, and her speech was one for the ages.

#6: Phantom Thread

This is the one I saw the most recently, on the eve of the Oscars. I’m not that familiar with the work of Paul Thomas Anderson, or Daniel Day-Lewis for that matter (sue me), but I was pleasantly captivated by this film. It has a rhythm, language, and tone all its own. It’s not trying to be best picture, it’s just trying to tell a story. And those dresses—STUNNING. MVP is a tie between the gorgeous music and the breakout performance of the quirky Vicky Krieps.

#5: The Shape of Water

The Best Picture winner swings in the middle for me. I was expecting to love it, and while it didn’t capture me completely, it is certainly an excellent film. From start to finish, it’s a truly immersive experience. There were some drawn out plotlines, like the Russian spy subplot, and some that were too thinly drawn, like Octavia Spencer’s character. But overall I appreciated the focus on the various underdogs of the 60’s, the aesthetic, and the morality of the whole piece. And as a Pisces, I related to the fish.

#4: The Post

Okay, so I think I’m the only person I know who really liked The Post, besides my parents. Yes, it’s chances at Best Pic were probably a few years back, even though it was ironically made in a year when the press is continually under attack. But the joy I felt watching Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks acting together was worth the price of admission, and the supporting cast was very solid. Meryl alone honestly made the movie for me, when she gave the go ahead to publish the papers. I just had a lot of fun watching, so that’s good “news” in my book!

#3: Call Me By Your Name

I do like CMBYN. Quite a lot, actually. But one thing I need to clarify is that the casting of two straight men in queer roles is difficult for me to swallow. Timothee of course is a breakout star, and he owns this role, but why could it not have been a gay actor? Despite that (and the glaring age gap of Armie Hammer), this film is visually beautiful, reflective, and relatable. Also, Michael Stuhlbarg was truly robbed.

#2: Get Out

This was the film I was rooting for to actually win Best Picture. It’s wholly original, genre-bending, and endlessly culturally significant. It was also a certifiable blockbuster! The kind of movie that should be rewarded. Daniel Kaluuya was perfect, and the image of him “sinking” that became iconic will be remembered for a long while. I still get chills thinking about this movie. It’s what our society needed, and still does.

#1: Lady Bird

My all time favorite movie of last year. I can’t express what this movie means to me. The fresh take on a coming of age story (my favorite genre), the hilarious and relatable characters, and the fierce chemistry between Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf all came together so beautifully. One of those films that really understands its audience, relatable on a level I can’t even explain. It really is a shame it didn’t win any awards. A++

Honorable Mentions:

I, Tonya was a kind of clunky movie with excellent acting, which was rightfully awarded (although I do wish Laurie Metcalf got more recognition for her supporting role in Lady Bird, Allison Janney earned her gold). The Florida Project was a visual and emotional masterpiece, which Willem Dafoe anchored beautifully, and The Big Sick was a very refreshing and inspiring rom-com. A great year for movies! And I have my MoviePass to thank for letting me see as many as I did! Peace!

#oscars #oscars 2k18 #lady bird #cmbyn #getout #text post #acting

[tornrose24]

Things about Krupp/CU in the Captain Underpants Little Mermaid inspired AU

So I decided to add some facts for this AU since people are getting interested in it. First up is for both Krupp and CU:

Krupp -Before he had his ability to feel love or optimism be ripped from him, Krupp used to be a lot nicer and his temper wasn’t as bad as it is now. He grew worse as time went on and the fact that he constantly feels like he’s hollow doesn’t help his mood.

-He had a strict childhood and a lot of bad experiences that didn’t help with shaping him into the person he is now.

-A lot of merfolk are intimidated by the fact that he’s part shark and looks scary. There are times where Krupp likes this, but there are times where he gets a little self-conscious about it.

-There is an old wives’ tale told to the children of the surface world about Krupp to get them to behave. If they do not treat the ocean and all who live in it with respect OR if they stray too far from their parents on the shoreline OR if they swim too far out into the ocean, then the king of the ocean will send someone to drag them down into his domain where he’ll keep them imprisoned. 

-His teeth are as strong as a regular shark’s and can cut through a lot, though he accidentally bites his tongue a lot too. One of the goals that George and Harold hope to accomplish as a prank is to make Krupp bite his way out of something.

-No one in the ocean kingdom calls him by his first name that much. Those who do, only do so if the situation really calls for it.

-Unlike the book version, Krupp is NOT a coward. There is a good reason enemies of the kingdom of the ocean fear him, besides the fact that he can cause literal storms through his anger. If he is dead set on something, he will do anything to accomplish it. His ability to keep things in order and to not cave in has at least earned the respect of his people, but it doesn’t mean they always agree with the king.

-Being annoyed or frustrated won’t cause storms, but how severe they are reflects on how angry he gets. It could vary between huge waves or a full blown storm. Harold and George have unintentionally caused a few, but the worst storm created out of Krupp’s anger is when he finds out about them breaking his number one law by escaping to the surface world and taking on human forms.

-His biggest regret varies between having ever gone up to the surface world in the first place and allowing the parents of George and Harold to work for him (and thus have to deal with the two of them).

-He’s not subjected to the boys’ pranks as often as in the film or the books, but when it happens its bound to be amusing. And then a small storm will happen not long after that.

-He also can manipulate water somewhat if he needs to.

-(I took inspiration from the film Splash for this one and I thought it would be funny and ironic). There was a time where if humans had special charms, they could breathe underwater, but Krupp had most of them destroyed. Alternatively, merfolk can provide humans with the power to breathe underwater by kissing them. The kiss of an adult merperson can allow six hours worth of the ability to breath underwater but anyone lucky enough to get kissed by the king gets a full three day’s worth of that same ability since he’s THAT powerful.

-The colors of his sash are dark green and dark blue. The teeth on his necklace are shark teeth from actual sharks. The symbol of the kingdom that he wears is the sign of Neptune (because the creator of this AU was super lazy to come up with anything more original).

-There is a way he keeps his toupee on underwater but it’s top secret. Not even the creator of the AU knows the answer to this mystery.

-He once promised Harold’s mom that if her husband ever came back to the kingdom, he would punish him for abandoning her and her family. It was one of his rare moments of compassion, even if the punishment in question is not kid friendly enough to mention here (and it freaked out Harold’s mom a bit, though she appreciated the concern).

-He can’t just fire the parents of George and Harold for the boys’ behavior so he’ll rant about their actions to them a warning.

-Just like in any/most mermaid tale, Krupp used to sing a lot. It was something Edith liked about him whenever she caught him singing. However he stopped singing and didn’t want to be caught doing so after the removal of his ability to love. (He’s voiced by Ed Helms, how can I NOT include that?!)

-Both human and mershark forms have stretch marks (I didn’t draw them, but I like the idea).

-The bracelet he wore to become human as a spiral symbol. It’s power lasts for up to three days, so he visited the surface world very frequently for awhile. And no, he did not have to give up his voice.

-Edith was the first human he ever met face to face during his time on the surface. He was also completely naked at the time and she whacked him over the head when she freaked out about it.

-The one article of human clothing he had a hard time understanding was (no big surprise) underwear.

-It took him awhile to learn to walk and to get used to the fact that he had normal looking teeth. The later caught him by surprise when he first saw the change in the mirror and it made him look less scary, which was something he found to be refreshing for a change.

-The human world was so new and so exciting for Krupp that he acted a lot like CU (if CU had a higher IQ) towards everything. In fact it took him awhile to get used to the fact that children weren’t afraid of him at that time and he did like them. Sadly that last part changed when he changed for the worse.

-Krupp was first drawn towards Edith for her quiet, yet kind nature, as well as her blue eyes. Whenever she opened up and was outgoing, he was drawn to her even more and he admired her desire to take control of her life and to be able to support herself.

-The moment he completely lost his heart to Edith and knew that he wanted more than anything to be with her was a night on the boardwalk where he danced with her. (my head-cannon is that the music that would have played was an instrumental version of ‘When words fail’ from the Shrek Musical because-a couple of lyrics aside- it is so fitting). It was one of the happiest moments of his life, he felt like he could be himself and he felt that he knew exactly what he wanted in his future. It was only sometime after the dance was over that reality kicked in for him and he wouldn’t even take the chance to confess his feelings to her.

-There’s a lot of things about his true appearance that he is insecure about and they didn’t help in his choice to leave Edith. He wasn’t handsome as a slightly overweight and average looking human, but he felt that he would look like a hideous monster to her in his real form. This fear would one day come true, but not in the way he would have expected.

-On the day Krupp was supposed to meet Edith before she had to leave to continue her apprenticeship, he stayed hidden under the pier and was forced to watch her wait and be crushed when he didn’t show up. The heartbreak and pain over what he had to do was enough to make him cry and it would not be long before he would visit a certain scientist so that he would never have to experience this ever again.

Captain Underpants (or CU for short) -CU is Krupp’s ability to love, as well as to feel compassion and optimism, personified in a form that looks similar to the king’s own, but slightly different. Those emotions Krupp ripped out manifested and took on that form within the ring that contained them and the form also doubles as a reflection of the self confidence that Krupp lacks. CU still acts like how he does in the books/film, but he doesn’t remember who or what he is.

-For some reason, water prevents CU from getting out of the ring, while snapping your fingers can summon him out. 

-The ring was originally a consolation prize that Krupp won at one of the games on the boardwalk during his time as a human and was his only possession from the human world. He threw it away in a place where it couldn’t be found because of what it contains and for all that it symbolized to him.

-The ring was found by George and Harold during one of their adventures and George wore it on the day they both escaped to the surface world.

-The boys first met CU on their first night as humans when they accidentally snapped their fingers. They were scared of him at first because they thought that Krupp found them, but then they grew to enjoy him overtime. CU was quick to like them and he wants to protect them while he tries to figure out who he is.

-Only children who are genuinely good of heart and character can see CU. The only adult who can see him is his true self.

-CU is more like a spirit without an actual body and he can change between his mershark and human forms at will. His choice in outfit for his human form was what earned him his name by the boys.

-CU can’t cause storms like Krupp can, but he’s still someone to fear if you hurt someone he cares about.

-CU can also sing like Krupp, except he’s more open to doing it. He’s not always on cue though.

-CU feels like he needs to be somewhere and that he is not whole. He feels a pull towards the ocean (a pull towards his true self) but the water keeps him away, like a barrier.

-Because of Krupp’s love towards Edith, CU feels the same way towards her as well, though he doesn’t know why and doesn’t know who she is. It won’t stop him from trying to talk to her.

-If CU feels a very strong emotion towards something or shows affection towards someone he cares about, Krupp can feel a faint ghost of it from many miles away (the latter is uncomfortable about it and doesn’t understand why it happens).

-CU may or may not be able to possess his true self’s body if he is knocked out. But in order for Krupp to accept CU back into him (and to become whole once more), he must actually want to do so.

I will add more as time goes on. Next up will be for George and Harold, which might be either tomorrow or the next day.

#captain underpants #little mermaid au #captain underpants fan fiction #mr krupp #kruppxedith

[asfeedin]

15 famous and inspiring photographers

Walker Evans influenced Robert Frank. Eugène Atget inspired Berenice Abbott. Alfred Stieglitz mentored Paul Strand. Invented in the 19th century, photography is a relatively young medium, but its brief history has been shaped—at least in part—-by the relationships that form between artists and generations. Up-and-coming photographers stand on the shoulders of their predecessors; they borrow their ideas, and they reinvent them.

For emerging and established artists alike, revisiting the work of renowned photographers can provide motivation and foster fresh innovations. In this article, we revisit ten of history’s most important and talked-about photographers, and we also take a look at five outstanding photographers who are part of the 500px community today. Read on for your daily dose of inspiration.

Sally Mann (1951-present)

Though she was already an acclaimed photographer at the time, Mann became a household name in the early 1990s, when she released Immediate Family, a collection of photographs of life with her three children in the rural landscape of the Virginia hills.

Featuring childhood adventures, nosebleeds, and wet beds, the book and exhibition revealed a hidden side of family life, rarely depicted in art. She’s returned to the book throughout the years, providing timely insights into the changing and shifting nature of American childhood in this day and age.

She has also revisited her own family—including her husband Larry—as model, muse, and inspiration, and her home in the Southern United States has served as both a backdrop and a main character in her more recent photographs.

Although her subject matter might have evolved, Mann’s raw and compassionate approach to family, memory, and the inevitable passage of time has become an ever-present theme.

Browse her photographs here.

Learn more about Sally Mann: Listen to her NPR interview, “Making Art Out Of Bodies: Sally Mann Reflects On Life And Photography”.

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004)

A co-founder of Magnum Photos and pioneer of street photography, Cartier-Bresson preferred never to use flash and used 35mm film in lieu of large or medium formats. His legacy revolves around what he called “the decisive moment.” Cartier-Bresson reasoned that if a photographer could witness the moment he wished to capture, it was already too late to photograph it. Instead, Cartier-Bresson focused on learning to read social cues and hone his intuition in order to capture moments as they happened.

Browse his photographs here.

Learn more about Henri Cartier-Bresson: Read this scan from the MoMA library, complete with text and images.

Gordon Parks (1912-2006)

As Life magazine’s first African American staff photographer, Parks documented some of the most important moments in the American Civil Rights Movement. He had access to the movement’s leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, and he also shared the stories of everyday families living in the United States—from Harlem, New York to Mobile, Alabama in the Jim Crow South.

Parks’ photographs told personal stories, but they also transcended barriers and changed hearts and minds throughout the nation. Though he wasn’t formally trained, he made a permanent mark on the history of photography; before he reached the age of fifty, he was already considered one of “the most influential image makers of the postwar years.” As he told The New York Times in 1997, “I’m in a sense sort of a rare bird. I suppose a lot of it depended on my determination not to let discrimination stop me.”

Browse his photographs here.

Learn more about Gordon Parks: Read I AM YOU: Selected Works, 1942–1978, published by Steidl.

With a focus on conservation, Burkard has braved some of the most remarkable—and inhospitable—landscapes on earth, from the remote and unnamed beaches of Iceland to the bone-chilling waters of Norway. With a passion for water and surfing, he’s traveled with scientists, engineers, sailors, and more—all with the intention of educating the public about the beauty, resilience, and fragility of our planet.

“I set out to find the places others had written off as too cold, too remote, and too dangerous to surf,” he recalls in his 2015 Ted Talk. In these wild and unforgiving places, he’s found silence and peace, reminding us of the importance of getting back to our roots and reconnecting with the environment.

Diane Arbus (1923-1971)

Experiencing the height of her career in the 1960s, Arbus was known for her offbeat and often haunting portraits. Whether she was photographing members of LGBTQ+ community, sex workers, circus performers, or people with developmental or physical disabilities, her gaze frequently landed on those who had been overlooked or relegated to the fringes of society.

Since she came from a privileged upbringing herself, Arbus’s photographs of marginalized and disadvantaged people have been hotly debated by scholars, intellectuals, and the public—but her unflinching honesty and interest in the human psyche have earned her a special place in the history of photography. As John Szarkowski, the former director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, once put it, “Arbus did not avert her eyes.”

Arbus passed away in 1971, leaving behind a basement full of hundreds of rolls of film. The New York Times published an obituary for her just last year, nearly fifty years after her death, as part of their project ‘Overlooked’—reaffirming once again the timeless nature of her work.

Browse her photographs here.

Learn more about Diane Arbus: Read Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph, first published in 1972, one year after her death.

Born in France and based in Southern Africa, Bleda spent her childhood as a citizen of the world, soaking up all the sights, sounds, and flavors the world has to offer. She’s drawn to mystery, and whether she’s shooting night sky photography in the city or wandering through the countryside, her photographs are often imbued with a sense of the uncanny and otherworldly.

Although she’s chosen a different subject matter, Bleda recently named Arbus among her influences in conversation with The Washington Post, along with science fiction author Philip K. Dick and others. Perhaps what ties her work to Arbus is that sense of mystery and interest in the unknown. As Arbus famously commented, “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know.”

Robert Frank (1924-2019)

Frank’s beginnings as a commercial photographer in Zurich (and later, as a fashion photographer in the US) laid a solid foundation for the street photography that made him famous. Frank shot with his emotions, looking for evocative compositions rather than technical perfection. Though this perceived “sloppiness” was commented on by critics, it was the exact quality that set his work apart from other documentary photos.

His collection, The Americans, also received criticism in the United States due to its somewhat unflattering portrayal of the title subjects. Now, The Americans is widely considered to be a masterpiece and the benchmark by which generations of photographers have measured their work. Frank passed away in September of this year at the age of 94.

Browse his photographs here.

Learn more about Robert Frank: The documentary Don’t Blink — Robert Frank examines Frank’s process and personal life.

Guy Bourdin (1928-1991)

Originally a French painter, Guy Bourdin applied compositional elements of painting to photography throughout his expansive career. (He initially exhibited under the name Edwin Hallan.)

Bourdin’s provocative, colorful style turned fashion photography on its head, prioritizing the image over the product. A contemporary of both Man Ray and Magritte, his work is recognizable for its vibrant colors, cropped compositions, and elements of surrealism. By his death in 1991, Bourdin had achieved recognition in the worlds of fashion, art, and photography. However, he preferred to remain out of the limelight, even going so far as to turn down a prestigious award from the French Ministry of Culture.

Browse his photographs here.

Learn more about Guy Bourdin: Take a look at this documentary: When the Sky Fell Down – the Myth of Guy Bourdin.

As an emerging street photographer, Jeffries once took a picture of a young homeless woman; she immediately confronted him about not asking for permission first, and he apologized. In the ten-plus years since, he’s traveled the world photographing people living on the streets, always with their consent.

Jeffries has spent a great deal of time with the individuals in his photographs, and in addition to highlighting their personal histories, his dignified portraits have raised awareness about the global problem of homelessness.

Beyond sharing the stories behind the photos, the photographer has raised funds for charities and donated his own money to help people in need. “Everyone else walks by like the homeless are invisible,” he once told TIME. “I’m stepping through the fear, in the hope that people will realize these people are just like me and you.”

Don McCullin (1935-present)

Sir Donald McCullin got his start in the 1950s, photographing friends who were involved in a local London gang. As a war correspondent in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, he went on to document poverty, destruction, and desperation in conflict zones around the world. “Having a tough background gave me empathy,” he recently told The New York Times. “It made me know violence, poverty, bigotry.”

Though his photographs are often painful, they also serve as a testament to the importance of bearing witness to the suffering of others. Throughout it all, his hope has been to give voice to those who remain unheard—and to compel us to confront atrocities and acknowledge our obligations to people in need.

McCullin’s code of ethics and his unwavering empathy, honed in those early years in London, have served as his guiding lights. In fact, some of his best photographs might have been those he chose not to take; he respected the wishes of a dying soldier in Vietnam who didn’t want to be photographed, and he dropped his camera in Cyprus to save a child.

Always quick to eschew the “artist” label in favor of the no-nonsense title of “photographer,” McCullin once admitted, “I didn’t choose photography, it seemed to choose me, but I’ve been loyal by risking my life for 50 years.”

Browse his photographs here.

Learn more about Don McCullin: Read his autobiography, Unreasonable Behavior.

William Eggleston (1939-present)

Color photography was slow to gain popularity in an overwhelmingly monochrome field. Eggleston embraced color photography early on as a medium for elevating everyday objects. His work helped to legitimize the use of color in artistic photography (so much so that the selling price of one of his works set a world record).

Now 80, Eggleston continues to create in daring ways. He released a debut album of electronic soundscapes, Musik, in 2017. The album incorporates old school melodies, techniques, and musical equipment, resulting in a refreshing new take on once-familiar material.

Browse his photographs here.

Learn more about William Eggleston: Read his interview with Sean O’Hagan of The Observer.

Raised in Pacific Northwest, this photographer—who goes by the moniker “Fursty”—has a love for nature and dark, foggy days etched into his DNA. He’s traveled to some of the most extraordinary and historic places on Earth—living in a wooden sailboat in East Greenland, roaming with the sheep of Iceland, and touching down in Chernobyl, Ukraine, an area that will remain uninhabitable for thousands of years to come.

Perhaps he’s most at home in the forest, and he camps as often as he can. Even with millions of followers tuning in to his work daily, he makes time to explore. “I want people to respect nature, because it’s beautiful,” he explained in a 2017 interview. “That’s why I’m taking pictures of it—not because it’s going to get you Instagram likes.”

Peter Lindbergh (1944-2019)

One of a rare breed of commercial photographers who eschew retouching, Lindbergh’s photos show beauty at its most raw. As the demand for perfectly polished celebrity portraits increased, this German photographer’s work stood out for its authenticity and realism.

Lindbergh turned to photography in the way many do: after buying a camera to take family photos. He later worked with celebrities such as Helen Mirren, Tina Turner, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Despite his anti-retouching stance, his January 1990 cover photo for British Vogue is widely credited as the beginning of the supermodel phenomenon. In a 2016 CNN interview, he explained, “The first rule of beauty is truth.” Lindbergh passed away on September 3, less than a week before Frank’s death.

Browse his photographs here.

Learn more about Peter Lindbergh: Watch this DW Documentary about his career.

Currently based in Paris, this Italian-born photographer and director draws from the worlds of fashion and fine art to create fanciful, romantic portraits. Bevacqua, who also goes by the moniker Moth Art, got her start in her teens, photographing her sisters and friends, and she’s returned to women as a central focus throughout her career.

Preferring spontaneous, authentic pictures over “perfect” and idealized representations, she subverts stereotypes surrounding femininity while inhabiting a fantastical, dreamlike world that’s entirely her own.

“I don’t have a precise message, besides beauty, in its simplest form,” she told My Modern Met a few years ago. “I want people to feel emotions while looking at my photos, to imagine things, stories and old memories.” She recently released the book Her Out There—a collection of her portraits of women.

Ellen Von Unwerth (1954-present)

Von Unwerth’s road to photography featured many twists and turns. Orphaned in Germany at a young age, she served as a magician’s assistant after high school. She then launched a ten-year modeling career leading up to her shift into fashion photography. Von Unwerth has worked with Vogue, Vanity Fair, and the band Duran Duran.

Her unique view, which encompasses the fashion industry from both sides of the camera, is evident in her approach to fashion photography in the “Me Too” era. Both on the shoot and in her finished work, Von Unwerth shows all of her subjects’ bodies to their best advantage without objectifying or disrespecting them.

Browse her photographs here.

Learn more about Ellen Von Unwerth: Read her 2018 interview for Harper’s Bazaar magazine.

Inspired? Share your work on 500px to show the world what you took away from studying these famous photographers.

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EE2615 Workshop – Composition

Applied Media Aesthetics (1) first workshop was all about composition. We began by defining composition in a broad sense. I would personally define it as the arrangement of things within a given space. If this is in three dimensions, you could describe it as the placement of actors on a stage, or the arrangement of layers in something. In two dimensions, such as in a photograph or film, it is the arrangement of objects in the given image.

There are many compositional techniques, such as leading lines, the Fibonacci sequence, and the rule of thirds. We were tasking with first going outside, under a time limit, and taking photos that link to key creative terms and words that all link to composition.

After we had taken those, we had more time to take DSLRs and photograph better images than the time constrained ones on our phones. I did in fact keep some of the ideas that I took on my phone but reshot them, but several I changed either due to a lucky opportunity or due to the longer thinking time and better equipment that I had available.

1 : Line

For line, I began with an idea of symmetry when taking photos on my phone. Getting a near exact symmetry on the corner of a building on campus was not easy, but I nearly managed it hand held. The composition isn’t perfect but the concept is certainly there, with the eye being drawn upwards towards the sky like an arrow.

When I had my DSLR, there was a fence with another fence casting fantastic shadows onto it. Using a long lens, I captured the leading lines through the centre of the image well, and I much prefer it over the phone photo, particularly with the soft focus. Something in the composition to lead the eye towards would have improved it further.

2 : Shape

Inspiration for shape was not something that instantly came to my head, but when I saw an ash box for cigarettes, the shapes cut into it were something I wanted to use. The symmetry is very pleasing, however the lighting could have been far better.

Despite having more time when using a DSLR to think about ideas for shape, I still struggled. However, when I was in a local park, the alignment of goalposts like a rectangular tunnel was very pleasing. When dealing with such distances it was difficult to get them to align perfectly however, so the composition is a little off.

3 : Value

I interpreted value very literally, and composed my photos for black and white in mind. On my phone, I found an intersection of 3 different walls from an angle that created lines of good contrast, showing the changes in value over the image. Despite composing the image to have straight lines, it seems the lines of the walls were not perfectly straight, as no realignment cropping lets them be perfectly parallel to the sides of the image.

When I took my DSLR out, I found a rock in a river, where the sunlight was perfectly lighting it. When I took this in black and white with a bit of post processing, the image really showed the different values found in the surface of the water. A basic thirds composition worked well for the image.

4 : Colour

Right outside of Tower C, an abandoned bike has excellent contrast due to its bright yellow colouring. When I first took the photo, the composition worked best as a square crop, leading down a tunnel. The colour is certainly the most eye catching.

I then went back to campus with a 400mm (200mm 2x equivalent) lens. This almost completely flattened the perspective allowing me to get a far nicer composition in my eyes for the image. However, whilst the bike is centred, the railings are not, and the composition would be significantly nicer if they were.

5 : Texture

I wanted to show a contrast of textures in my first phone photo, and found a nice tuft of grass in a crack of the paving slabs. The rough texture of the floor was a good contrast against the messier grass, and I went for a symmetrical composition in the photo. If the sun was directly above, the photo would have been better as there would have been no directional shadow, but this was not eh case.

Much like the photos for volume, I photographed water using my DSLR, using a polarised filter over my 200mm lens to reduce the reflections, and capture the texture under the water as well as the ripples above. It looks very abstract, and has no real composition which is potentially the biggest let-down of the image, but the layers of texture is very pleasant.

6 : Mass/Volume

I decided to go with the volume aspect of this design attribute. Volume to me spoke of spheres, so I took a (relatively) symmetrical photo of a very spherical light on campus using my phone. It reminded me of an eye, but the concept overall is somewhat weak.

With my DSLR, I found dried thistles in a park. The lighting was very soft that day, perfect for using a macro lens to capture the round spheres against a soft bokeh background. Rule of thirds worked best here, along with the guiding diagonal line leading to the background formed by the branch of the thistles.

7 : Space

Space was again a very difficult idea to put into photography on the fly. I decided to use an intersection between pipes and a wall to show spacing in a composition. I am very unhappy with the image as I find it conceptually very weak, but at the time it was the best I could achieve for space.

With my DSLR I still found the idea a challenge to grasp, but I thought that these broken letters on a sign was a good idea to show spacing. One, these letters would have had perfect spacing between them, however time has caused the letters to decay, making the spacing random. I thought the image was much nicer than the last, particularly so when the key accent colour of the letters was highlighted to show how the space between them is even more apparent.

8 : Time

Time is difficult to show in photographs. I decided to go with the idea of showing aging things. On my phone due to the time constraints, the best I could find was a decaying leaf, the colours are by far the nicest thing in the image, but the composition is very weak.

I much prefer the DSLR image I cook, of an abandoned, decaying shopping trolley. The composition is far better, with diagonals from the trolley leading the viewer down the image. I created, two versions, one less edited and one more heavily graded to add a heavier sense of age to the photo, and play off the passing of time more.

9 : Motion

For motion, I wanted living creatures to be my subject. With the time constraints, having a friend jump was the easiest thing to do here. Using manual settings on my phones camera, with the shutter speed set to maximum, I caught him jumping from a small staircase. Composing the photo was very difficult due to the very nature of motion, so I am not particularly happy with the image.

With my DSLR, I lucked upon a squirrel scurrying up and down a tree. This motion I captured very well, with sunlight hitting the squirrel to highlight him. A simple thirds composition worked well here, especially when the differing textures of rough bark and soft fur help guide the eye even more.

#composition

[pw-wp]

FAN ART: Weird subculture or Natural offshoot of Graphic Design?

IMAGE: Examples of fan art from the Deviant Art website.

My work often takes me to the hallowed halls of convention centers and community centers for annual gatherings of image makers of all stripes and their fans. These conventions, or “Cons”, be comic, horror, or video game themed, but one thing seems to be universal about them: Fan Art.

IMAGE: The fan-art-made-good example of Fiona the human and Cake the Cat from the Adventure Time cartoon series.

Fan Art is, essentially, art created by a fan-base centered around a specific property, actor, story, etc. It fulfills several purposes, from practicing art-making, community building, and, in some controversial cases (like most Cons one could attend), for profit. PBS’s Off Book program has explored how fan art is something that transcends media, stretching from graphic design to illustration and beyond (Brown, 2012). In some cases it can even influence the original product, as in the case of Adventure Time’s gender-swapped characters Fiona the Human and Cake the Cat (gender-swapped fan art creations of series leads Finn the Human and Jake the Dog). These characters proved so popular that series producer Fred Seibert greenlit an episode starring the duo (Brown, 2012). This is a grand example of fan art, but with the ocean of other offerings in the realm via online homes like Threadless, DeviantArt, and Mondo (at varying levels of quality and legality) and the recent experience of walking through mountains of fan art at a Wizard World Convention, I thought it might be a fine idea to look at the genesis of this subset of art.

Commissioned Beginnings

IMAGE: Top Row: Mythical figures drawn by Hokusai, Bottom Row: A selection of Mucha’s posters of Sarah Bernhardt.

Like much art, the term fan art is subjective. For example, if we consider religions to be organizations and gatherings of fans, why, we have fan art going back to ancient times of religious figures. Maybe the Venus of Willendorf had her own comic book. These images extend up to today, outside of Islam, anyway, and I don’t have years to write a single blog post, so we will narrow our scope a bit. Perhaps the best look at the origins of fan art can be traced back to the same beginnings, we ascribe to modern graphic design. I’m speaking, of course, about posters and Japanese ink prints.

Meggs notes that some of the early Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints that made their way over to Europe depicted Kabuki actors (p. 196, 2012). While the context is lost to many viewers today, these images functioned the same way as movie posters of actors function today. This is essentially the legit version of fan art- advertising art that is usually commissioned by the rights holder. It was not limited to just actors: like the posters of Superman or Wonder Woman on your kid’s wall, artists like Hokusai produced prints representing heroic warriors like Yoshitsune (Bouquillard and Marquet, pp.151-152, 2007)  It did not take Europe long to pick up on this trend, either.

Artists like Mucha and Toulouse-Lautrec immediately spring to mind. Ulmer writes about how Mucha practically produced a sub-genre of Sara Berndhart posters in the late 19th century, when the actress contracted him exclusively to produce the now immortal prints (p.8, 2007). It would not long before professional image makers like Mucha found themselves joined by amateurs as well, and not just in the schoolbooks of aspiring artists.

SKYGACK and the Beginnings of Cosplay

IMAGE: Original comic image and homemade costume of Skygack the visitor from Mars.

Innovations in printing lead to an image explosion around the turn of the twentieth century. Along with adverts, newspapers helped launch the comic strip, a medium that has since branched into the multi-billion dollar businesses of animation, comic books and films. It’s fitting then, since thousands dress up as Batman and Spiderman every year, that one of the earliest documented examples of fan art would concern cosplay (the dressing up as) a comic strip character.

According to Ron Miller, Mr. Skygack was the creation of cartoonist A. D. Condo and was essentially a fish-out-of-water gag wrapped up as a visitor from Mars (2013). The character proved so popular that Plunkett notes fans started to make costumes of the Martian for city events and parties (2016). Apparently it was such a big trend that the newspapers picked up on it, so we have visual evidence of it, over a hundred years later. While the creepy looking fellow is something of a footnote now, Skygack deserves at least a plaque in the inevitable fan art hall of fame as a pioneer in the field. While this fellow was all laughs and harmless fun, there is also seedier side to fan art, so much so that the label may not even be properly applied.

TIJUANA BIBLES and Selling under the Table!

Image: Safe for work covers of Tijuana Bibles.

Now comes probably the most controversial subsection of fan art: erotic fan art. No, there won’t be any NSFW images presented here, but it is fascinating to examine this subsection, considering it is most associated with Rule 34 of the Internet today.Rule 34, of course, is, as Dewey writes, “If it exists, or can be imagined, there is Internet porn of it” (2016). Like the pioneering days of film, video and art itself (exhibit A: The Venus of Willendorf, of comic book fame), fan art’s less discussed and notorius subset has a history dating back decades. Tijuana Bibles, sometimes referred to as bluesies or eight pagers were illicit, cheaply printed little tracts depicting your great grandpa’s favorite cartoon characters in sexually explicit situations.

These illegal little books were sold under the counter and included scandalous adventures being pursued by Popeye, Blondie, and even Mickey Mouse. While the quality for most is lacking, some actually include some fine draftmanship, enough so that places like Duke University have collections of the little deviants(David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 2017). They served as an income source for many artists in the same way that illicit images produced on the internet are sometimes produced for profit. Indeed, they could even be used as stepping stones to “legitimate” careers. Faraci writes about how the initial Bazooka Joe (of gum comic fame) artist, Wesley Morse, got the nod from producing Tijuana Bibles (2012). The legacy of these little things extends out to today, and beyond just visual art. After all, we are all suffering through Fifty Shades of Grey movies thanks to written erotic fan fiction writing based on the Twilight series. One wishes the artists of the original Tijuana Bibles could have gotten a piece of that pie!

Beyond this somewhat seedy side of the fan art universe, not much of note has lasted the years between the early 20th century up to around the 1980s, outside the fantastic riffs of MAD magazine and the extreme world of Underground Comix in general, there is a style of fan art that is worth noting.

Before they were Pros: Fan art by Superstars when they were Young

IMAGE: The evolving skill of painter Alex Ross, as seen through his love of comic books.

Everyone has to get started somewhere. As Brown notes, oftentimes fan art is used as a way to practice the craft while having a guidepost and not needing the time to make new ideas (2012). This certainly makes sense. Even the author of this blogpost got his start from drawing horrendous Mickey Mouse doodles. The recent influx of artist books in the marketplace also provide the proverbial proof to the pudding.

Alex Ross is known far and wide for his painted depictions of superheroes. A collection of his work for DC comics shows that the man has been steeped in his subject matter for years (Kidd, 2005). His early drawings are certainly crude (he was, after all, five years old) but his efforts certainly pay off over time as his work gets better and better. He moves from doing fan art to inspired original characters, building his skill level over time before getting to college and mastering painting (pp. 21-28). Like many other comics artists, Ross does not appear out of a stump- he starts by emulating things he enjoys and grows into his own style and artwork. He is not alone in this- one particularly famous quartet of terrapins owe a lot to fan art and fandom in general

IMAGE: From left to Right: The work of Jack Kirby, Frank Miller and Eastman and Laird.

Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird have been very open about the inspiration that creators Frank Miller, Jack Kirby, and the character of Daredevil from Marvel Comics provided them in creating the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Farago writes about how both were inspired by artist/writers Jack Kirby and Frank Miller (p. 20, 2014). These inspirations, swirling about in the indie-publishing scene of the 1980s, were given manifest presentation in the first issue of the Ninja Turtles, which blatantly presents the heroes sharing an origin story with Daredevil (Farago, p. 20, 2014)- at the time being brought to new prominence by Miller. The fact that the comic book is dedicated to Kirby and Miller helps seal the deal.

The themes and art style of the early TMNT books has a healthy blend of Kirby dynamism and Miller inking techniques from that time. While not strictly an exercise in fan art, Eastman and Laird’s admitted admiration for the two other creators helped shaped one of the most dynamic franchises of the last thirty years. Like with Ross, the fruit of this labor shows the benefits of early, devoted fan hood combined with art making.

The Good, the Bad, and the Interesting Controversy

So we’ve seen a ton of interesting sides to this whole fan art thing. The good side has been expounded upon, along with the seedy seed, but what about the bad side? Well, the last bit of this blogpost will take a look at that and some of the controversy involved. Specifically, the copyright infringing, convention engulfing controversial side of the issue.

The culture news site Bleeding Cool has done fairly extensive reporting on the issue of rampant fan art at comic conventions. They have noted the uptick of giant collections of fan art that keep showing up at these fan gatherings, and how much these collections irk some practicing artists, who may rely on licensed image reproduction of everyone’s favorite superheroes to supplement their income in a tough business. One artist, Aldrin Aw,, was so frustrated at a  particular vendor selling “fan art” (which here mostly related to copying original art and adding digital effects) that he hounded him out of the convention (Johnston, May 2016). He also went out of his way publicly shame the “fan” artist on social media. The growing conversation around the fan art and bootlegging at conventions has also lead to greater efforts at explaining the legal repercussions of selling another person’s intellectual property throughout the community. Seth C. Polansky, a lawyer specializing in art and IP issues points out that much of what we consider “fan art” is, in a strict sense, illegal (Johnston, June 2016). That’s certainly a downer for a growing artistic subculture.

Thus, we find ourselves at a crossroads. A long-running subset of image making and artistic development that’s struggling to find a balance between a passionate hobby and legitimate money-making venture that crosses many redlines in the legal sense. Perhaps the best balance is seen in the work of studios like Mondo and Gallery Nucleus. Both offer a variety of fan art paintings and other works, but they are licensed. Unlike sites like Deviantart, much of this work is invited and functions in the same way as the commissions of Kabuki art cited above. Things have gone full circle, in effect.

Regardless of the many issues involved, fan art is something here to stay, and it has a pedigree. It will be quite interesting to see just how far it spreads in the future.

Sources for this writing include:

Bouquillard, J., & Marquet, C. (2007). Divinities, warriors, and legendary figures. In C. Henard (Ed.), Hokusai: first manga master (pp.145-157). New York: Abrams.

Brown, K. (2012, May 3). Fan Art [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/video/off-book-fan-art-creativity/

David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. (2012).Guide to the tijuana bibles collection, 1930-1998 [Data file]. Retrieved from https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/tijuanabibles/#historicalnote

Dewey, C. (2016, April 6). Is rule 34 actually true?: An investigation into the internet’s most risque law. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/04/06/is-rule-34-actually-true-an-investigation-into-the-internets-most-risque-law/?utm_term=.eed623bc895e

Faraci, D. (2012, July 25). Tijuana bibles from wesley morse, creator of bazooka joe (NSFW). Birth.Movies.Death.. Retrieved from http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2012/07/25/tijuana-bibles-from-wesley-morse-creator-of-bazooka-joe-nsfw

Farago, A. (2014). Teenage mutant ninja turtles: The ultimate visual history (1st ed.). San Rafael, CA: Insight Editions.

Johnston, R. (2016, June 10). Artists alley, art theft and copyright law- a lawyer speaks to bleeding cool. Bleeding Cool. Retrieved from https://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/06/10/artists-alley-art-theft-and-copyright-law-a-lawyer-speaks-to-bleeding-cool/

Johnston, R. (2016, May 8). Buzz sends tim lundmark packing at wizard world minneapolis comic con. Bleeding Cool. Retrieved from https://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/05/08/buzz-sends-tim-lungren-packing-at-wizard-world-minneapolis-comic-con/

Kidd, C. (2005). Mythology: the dc comics art of alex ross. New York: Pantheon Books.

Meggs, P. B., & Purvis, A. W. (2012). Art Nouveau. In Meggs’ history of graphic design (pp.196-231)(5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Miller, R., (September 19, 2013). Was mr. Skygack the first alien character in comics?. Io9. Retrieved from https://io9.gizmodo.com/was-mr-skygack-the-first-alien-character-in-comics-453576089

Plunkett, L.,(May 16, 2016). Cosplay is over 100 years old. Kotaku. Retrieved from https://cosplay.kotaku.com/cosplay-is-over-100-years-old-1777013405

Ulmer, R. (2007). Alfons Mucha. Los Angeles, CA: Taschen