#not a comic person but i had to take a little break to illustrate this daily grievance

[horreurscopes]

it's free real estate

#horreurart #noodle #not a comic person but i had to take a little break to illustrate this daily grievance #cute cats #artists on tumblr #art

[comicaurora]

Out of curiosity, how far ahead are you on the comic? I mean, you must have it all planned and written out, but I imagine that you are drawing the future of Aurora even while we're reading it.

So is Arc 2 already illustrated and ready for upload while you're on like Arc 5 or something? I'm by no means undermining your need for a break; I'm shocked that you've been uploading continuously for over 4 years at this point. I'm just interested to know how long it takes a person to make something this great. And also if you change any details in the final edit?

Basically: what's the workflow like?

Also I think you low-key inspired me to pick up painting as a hobby. I'm ready to pour so much money into creating things that I know I'll hate. :)

God, arc 5? That's a very generous assessment of how fast I can draw!

Typically, when the comic is updating regularly, I keep a buffer of 10 to 20 completed pages. Right now, in the interest of taking a break, the buffer is 0 completed pages.

Chapter 1 of Arc 2 is completely storyboarded, meaning it's sketched out, the dialog is all mostly finalized barring last-minute rephrasements, etc. It can be read in its current form, it just looks unpretty. In fact, just for fun, here's a sneak peek!

In the next month I'll go through and finalize as many pages from this chapter as possible - which means locking down the panel borders, fleshing out the backgrounds, lining, shading, coloring, polish, etc. - which will be the process of building up a new buffer for when the comic starts back up again in January. During that time, I'll also be storyboarding Chapter 2 and as much of the following parts as I can manage.

I have the next several chapters and sub-arcs planned out in loose timelines - event A happens at location B leading to consequences C and D, stuff like that. Chapter 2, being the closest, is a little more fleshed-out, with a more detailed bullet-pointed timeline and various character ideas I've had that might or might not make it into the final version.

What exactly the chapter breakdown is going to look like is a little more complicated. Initially I'd planned for Chapter 1 to be low-stakes downtime and Chapter 2 to quickly kick off the high-octane adventure again, but when I started bullet-pointing out the stuff I wanted to do in Chapter 2, I ended up with a big pile of slower-paced character moments I thought were well worth exploring, so the runtimes might stretch a little.

Translating those brainstormed notes into storyboards and dialog is what I would classify as the "writing" part of this process. It happens at an erratic pace largely determined by the whims of whatever muse decides to get me in a headlock that day; sometimes I go weeks with no storyboarding progress, sometimes I hammer out fifteen pages in one day.

It's kinda like weaving, to me. The soon-to-be-arriving parts of the story are the most finalized, the most densely woven. A little ways beyond that, things get looser - some patterns may be locked down, but the actual work that'll hold it together hasn't been done yet. And in the far-flung future arcs, it's just the basic bones of the story and a pile of the threads I've planned to use. I know the shape of it, but in order for it to be fun and engaging for me to make it, I need to give myself room to be creative when I'm putting the whole thing together.

I actually have a file called the "Toolbox" that contains every random character or subplot idea I've had, and sometimes when I'm debating where to go with a chunk of story, I'll crack it open and scan through to see if anything jumps out begging to be used. Lotta fun stuff in there that may or may not ever see the light of day. Dropping stuff in the Toolbox is one of the most fun and freeing parts of the process for me!

#asks #behind the curtain #writing stuff

[sparks-olivarpente]

Byler reunion fics list

Here is a list of "Will and Mike haven't talked for months/years and now find their way back to each other" fics I've read and loved! If you know of other such fics or have written one, please reblog and add them :) Thanks to the writers <3

are there still beautiful things? by @aceoflanterns will attends an open mic poetry night at a local cafe, invitation courtesy of one max mayfield. this turns out the unexpected effect of seeing one mike wheeler again… and maybe also sparking a conversation long overdue.

see me (i'm waiting for the right time) by agustplz (shout_out_lou) It's been ten months since the last time Mike and Will last spoke. Mike shows up at his dorm in Chicago, determined to fix things for good.

the gaps and the silence by @parkitaco (delusionaltogether) "Oh my God, I had such a crush on you back then," Mike says, laughing a little, and sounds so easy with it that it takes Will a couple of seconds to process. or, will and mike reunite 5 years after their friendship ends

bury me in metamorphoses by @hiscleric It’s been seven years since Will Byers vanished from Hawkins for the second time; seven years since he picked up his life, moved across the globe, and finally settled. OR: Running away and the reunion of a lifetime.

anything, anything by inblue It isn’t before Will is inside Mike’s two-bedroom apartment for the first time that Mike realizes a part of him had expected the world to implode as soon as he stepped past the threshold, as if Will’s presence in Mike’s apartment would trigger some sort of ancient curse or something. Or: Five years after the Byers family leaves Hawkins, Mike and Will rediscover each other within a small apartment in New York.

things lost, buried, and found again by iwannabeyourpoetry It’s December 1993 when, in the wake of Lonnie Byers’ untimely death, Will finds himself returning to Hawkins for the first time in years—a morose husk of the person he once was.

Lost Without You by Julia_Skysong After graduating, both Mike and Will struggled to adjust to life after the Upside Down. It didn't help they had already drifted apart. But now, 8 years later, Mike finally reached out again, and the 2 struggle to rebuild their friendship while also hiding their romantic feelings for each other.

The Crossover by @futureboy-ao3 (nbfutureboy) Will Byers, a comic book author and illustrator at the very beginning of his career, initially turns down the invitation to Hawkins ‘HorrorCon’. But after hearing that a certain musician has gone missing - and despite the fact that Mike and Will haven’t spoken since their high school graduation - he can’t seem to shake the feeling something’s seriously wrong. With embeded sounds and songs! :D

More Than a Metaphor by Nikocat Will Byers returns home from college for the first time for Christmas break and he's a bundle of nerves. He's reckoned with some deep truths while away at school, finally coming to accept that he's gay. While he can be open and honest in his new city of New York, Hawkins is an entirely different story. Or Will Byers comes out to the people he loves and gets more than he bargained for.

Reunion by Nymphadoragreenleaf Will comes back after two years away and Mike can't wait to spend the summer with him! But there's someone with him… bonus: Mike being secretly good at cooking &lt;3

The Cemetery Dance by oceanfruit Will doesn't like his memory. He calls it his inflammable wood-- No matter how long it sits out and dries, a fire can never quite catch. Even with the challenges, he tries to forget, hoping one day he'd become unrecognizable. Yet there are things, people, that exist with him in a ghost-like manner. or, Will works in a restaurant, his memories wont let him alone and he can't stand the flickering light. When someone from his past walks in… AU full of mystery!

Path of the Paladin by olliecoddle "A paladin who has broken a vow typically seeks absolution from a cleric… " or, a few hours after delivering his father’s eulogy, Mike Wheeler punched his former best friend squarely in the face.

Can This Be a Real Thing (Can It?) by Pseudologia They’d graduated and Will had disappeared — not just to Mike, to everyone. It’s not like it was mean-spirited. He needed to leave Hawkins in the rearview, to figure out who he was without the ghosts of monsters at his heels (…) Except, well, now Mike is sitting here, at a gay bar…

Fool Me Once by @queerxqueen It took nearly three years of growing apart, but Will Byers has finally gotten used to life without Mike Wheeler. He has El, he has Max, he has his art, and, as of two days ago, he has a full ride to art school in Chicago, so things are good. Right? So when Mike climbs through his window one night and stumbles back into his life, Will’s not prepared for the resurgence of old feelings…

I Wanna Be Anything You've Lost by @edelweiss-coffee (scout_thewise) Will left his hometown after graduation, determined to get to know himself in New York City. It's 1992, he has a great job as a florist at The Secret Garden, and life is beautiful and fulfilling. He wouldn't change a thing… -or- Someone familiar has been hired at the coffee shop below his loft, and Will's avoidance tactics are taking a rough blow.

meet me at memory lane by @smoosnoom Still, it’s fine. It’s all fine. He’s allowed a bad day or two. It’s fine. “Will?” What’s not fine, however, is when he finds Mike Wheeler on his front porch step. or, It's senior year, and, after three years of silence, Mike and Will find their way back to each other.

Shrike by StepfordSnarker It's the late '80s, and Will is coping with the loneliness of having left the Party behind (…) It's the early '90s, and Mike is coming to understand that there are some people worth losing your false sense of self for. But now that Mike and Will have parted ways, this realization may have come too late.

Stepping On the Last Train by @suzieburself After everything they've been through, it is Mike who rips off the final band-aid of their friendship. Years pass of Will pretending like he never thinks about Mike at all. Years pass of him forging his own life and finally letting go. But when a young boy shows up at Will's apartment, it becomes clear that he'll never fully be done with Mike Wheeler.

I’m a Wreck (Without You Here) by @talkingtothelights Mike has been living 2,200 miles away from his family and hometown for the past fourteen years. He rarely visits, but when he receives heartbreaking news, he’s forced to return home for a funeral. It’s in this unfortunate chapter of life that Mike must come to terms with the consequences of abruptly running away from home and perhaps reconnect with the one person he’s tried his damnedest to forget about.

#this took me forever to write x_x #but i love reunion fics #byler #byler fic recs #byler fic #byler reunion fics #reunion fics

[cinderoo]

life update + what's next in 2024

since i shared the news on twitter, i think everyone following me on tumblr deserves to know about this as well. more under read more:

i resigned recently from my full time job for multiple reasons. i have been thinking about quitting since october 2023. the first reason is that i wanted a temporary break in life without knowing i had to go back in to work. and i wanted to enjoy a little bit of freedom which i never had the chance to experience since i jumped into working retail immediately after graduating art school (i will come back to this topic later). the second and more important reason is that i realized that i needed to go back to college for a non-art related major.

even though the retail stores i worked at had poor management, i don't regret my time working retail. i grew to love helping customers! and from the last retail job i worked at, i was promoted to Assistant Manager and because i was much closer to my bosses there, i was able to see how businesses are ran, which products a business should focus on - which products don't do so well, and how businesses can succeed further. that's how i developed an interest in both the economy and advertising - and i decided that going back in school by Fall 2024 for a Marketing Major would be a good choice of learning both things.

until then, i intend to enjoy my little break from life to the fullest by indulging in hobbies such as drawing, playing video games, and watching anime.

but if you have been following me for a few years, you would be shocked as to why i suddenly switched from 2D Animation to Marketing. i did study in art schools for 2D Animation from 2016 - 2019 after all.

this wasn't an easy decision for me to make. i cried and grieved over the time and money that i am funneling down the drain, so i know.

to paraphrase what i wrote on twitter, i basically came to realize that i was not going to get a job in 2D Animation at this rate because of the recession in the industry. and i also figured out that i would have no time to draw or create anyway even if i got a job in that field - hitting creative burnout from 2D animation sounds like an oxymoron. no thank you.

even when i was working full time and going to art school, i still was drawing and creating during my free time! i would honestly d*e before i give up that hobby, and i want my future to involve being able to draw and create.

so what does this all mean? i will continue with my plans to open my online store again, to table at local anime conventions, and to draw illustrations/small comics of characters like the Transformers Kotobukiya girls or of my original characters down the line. i am still working on my personal project with a friend behind-the-scenes to this day.

if you made it to the end of my open letter, thank you so much for taking the time to read this ❤️ it means a lot to me. cheers.

#cinderoo #original content #txt #me #just a general life update

[brother-emperors]

Very strange and random question, but would you mind directing me to your character design of Hermes? I'd also love to know if you have any tips on creating good character designs. If not, no worries!

Thank you for sharing your amazing art! The style is so good, and I always enjoy reading your comic strips. ❤️

I’ve drawn Hermes properly like, once before I think? in this comic! there’s another illustration of the same kind of scene with him, but I’m not a big fan of it and I’m thinking of redoing it sometime this year

ANYWAY character design advice! the Team Fortress 2 school of design will never steer you wrong (recognizable silhouettes), and one teacher I had personally liked the ‘opposites’ rule of character design, where you want some kind of noticeable ‘opposite’ of a character if you’re mostly doing pairs in a scene (so tall > short, that kind of thing). I personally adhere to whatever I think suits the narrative best/in a fun way. like, Crassus and Pompey are set up specifically for the story I have in mind

Pomepy is supposed to (eventually, it takes him a minute) be bulky enough that he could fold Crassus in half like laundry if he felt like it, and Crassus is supposed to look tall and thin, but he’s more lean muscle and could probably break your jaw if he hit you, and the subtextual narrative is about exploring all the ways they DON’T touch each other in the acts of violence that their bodies would be suited for, which is in total defiance of what comes before them, and also after (Antony and Octavian have a similar visual pairing, and it’s all physical violence there, baby)

in other news, I have a hard time figuring out a consistent character design until I figure out the story I want to tell lmao

there’s more about figuring out repeat draw ability vs complexity, balancing out overall design shape with accessories, clothes conveying personality and intent (character design work is a whole specialty tbh), but I tend to be a little more laid back about it because I’m more interested in prying open the story and then designing characters as the story comes together. like, sometimes I’ll shove a century of art history discourse into something, other times it’s Actor Hot, Show Rearranged The Circuits In My Brain, etc. but at the end of the day, I want it to work with the story, so I do these things side by side.

if you want more solid advice than this nebulous mess of thoughts, interviews with costume designers for movies or shows you enjoy is always always always a fantastic place to go to if you really want to understand how clothing and form convey intent and narrative to an audience: I keep a lot of that kind of theory in the back of my mind when I start seriously figuring out what I want a character to do, and by extension, how to look. interviews with animators and comic artists are good places to learn abt character design too!

#true detective s1 with the leather jacket scene was honestly life changing like oh this is how you tell a visual story with PUNCH #finger those holes Marty #ask tag #my big ‘look out’ advice is the tendency people have to over accessorize everything like if EVERYONE has ten million #cool things they are wearing then you have created visual sludge. nothing stands out. you’ve made a gacha game character #I say this with affection and disdain as a honkai star rail player #many of them look the same bc it’s the same level of over accessorizing. blah.

[netherworldpost]

Sorry if you've been asked this before, but how do you get started working in, as you said, weird quasi-startups?

This is a history retelling, not advice, because the world I came up in doesn't exist anymore. I'm in my 40s and started in the '90s.

If you skim over all of this WATCH THE VIDEO AT THE END HERE IS A LINK TO SAID VIDEO IT IS A CONDENSED VERSION OF IT from a local design firm.

The video is not a rick roll. This one is though.

Now I hope you can trust me. This is a long post. I'll use HACKERS to break it up.

I have no connection to Coudal.

Or Rick Astley.

I get into the nitty-gritty Small Scale Stuff

Jim Coudal gets into the nitty-gritty of the Medium-to-Large Scale Stuff... in 2011. The basics remain the same.

I am realizing in linking this that I don't think Coudal Partners exists anymore? I think they shifted their entire focus to Field Notes notebooks?

Anyway, still relevant.

(No -- 1994... and... maybe a bit earlier I can't remember that far back)

As I say -- this is history, not advice -- I'll try to pepper in some advice.

In some ways that's bad (Flash animation used to pay really well when weighed against what it took to learn how to do it).

In some ways that's good (things like Stripe and BigCartel and Shopify and MailChimp and Tumblr exist).

I was an anxious, studious kid really into mythology with very little access to it. I had access to the internet for about 6-8 hours a week, so scrambled to cram as much into my brain as I could. A reminder this is the early to mid 1990s.

I realized at some point that websites could be built without special tech. I explicitly remember seeing a web hosting company have a late night television ad on Conan O'Brian, offering a few megabytes of space free.

I learned HTML.

Then CSS launched, and I learned CSS.

(...yeah, this... this was the '90s)

From there I learned Macromedia Flash (later Adobe Flash) because it could do things I couldn't do with programming -- because of my own limitations, the web's limitations, free server limitations... etc.

I learned Flash the same way I learned HTML and CSS -- taking things apart to see how they worked, making my own stuff, breaking things down (and just breaking things)

At some point I was able to secure my own computer + internet and just hammered things constantly until I had a grasp of the basics.

So with that technical background...

"I am a web designer, do you need a website?" I would just offer up. Friends on forums, people in shops, a few cold calls that didn't work out great because I'm not a talkative person.

Just. Constantly. Networking.

Which is an accurate but kinda useless term, right?

"How does one network, does one just shove business cards into the face of everyone they meet and say 'I am a business person'"?

...yes.

Diners, comic shops, tattoo parlors, independent restaurants.

To illustrate the differences of when I started versus today -- any time I went somewhere that didn't have a website, I would ask the person behind the counter --

"Hey are you thinking about launching a website?"

When it wasn't the owner/manager at the counter and they would say something like "I just work here," I'd ask for the manager's contact info to follow up.

The success rate of "I ask" versus "I get money out of this" was maybe 1%. Just constantly asking, constantly trying to build the business books.

Never taking things personally when ghosted or just ignored or it fell through.

Cool but it's 2023/2024... so... the second half of my story may help.

I eventually gathered up enough clients and student loans to go to school for design. I have mixed opinions on this.

I had a few teachers who needed Extremely Cheap Intern-Level Labor and I was able to parlay my web experience into these opportunities.

I learned print design, branding, color theory, the basics of art in school.

I learned better business models by doing business and fucking up and getting burned and taking notes on how to fuck up less and get burned less the next go-round.

I applied for an ad agency job and hacked their website to rebuild it to show I could build websites and they were like "okay well we have to hire you now because we're in love with you / we fucking hate you"

(both emotions at the same time) (I worked there 11 months then went to grad school / see above art school link, it also applies)

Great thanks but maybe get back to advice?

I made things. I still make things.

Pins, buttons, shirts, bridge models, a chair, a lamp, I hired blacksmiths to learn about blacksmithing, I traded logos for beer, a theater company needed artwork so I engaged in a multi-prong trade of theater tickets and candy and / and / and / and with various other friends / clients / non-sense makers.

I made things and if people didn't have money to pay for them, I took some of their product.

Sometimes I paid other people with that product for things I needed, sometimes I paid with my labor for things I needed... etc.

Kept doing that until I could leverage skills acquired against people with money. Meeting them the same way.

"Hey who does your website?"

"Hey who does your menu design?"

"I like your logos, do you have someone working on your brochures? Oh you hate your logo? Okay to be honest... I was using that as an opening line. I hate it too. Want to chat about redoing it?"

I fucked up a lot. I got burned a lot. There was more success than failure so I was able to keep going.

Modern Day Translations

A lot of that will work -- build a portfolio, keep it updated, if someone mentions they are launching a whatever, chat with them -- but also look at freelance agencies.

If you work for trade, then scale the work offered for the product received. Don't be afraid to say "nope, out of scope."

People who will take +50% of the commission but help you find the commissions and handle the tax paperwork.

Ultimately, the basics are the same.

Make stuff. Put it into a portfolio.

Get comfortable introducing yourself.

Learn not to take rejection personally.

Keep going. The number of clients I would get on the first project discussion was probably 5-10%. It would take an average of 18-24 months, average, before I'd get money out of people. MEGA EMPHASIS -- A LOT OF -- MEGA EMPHASIS "hey remember me? I didn't have budget before, but now I do!"

By "make stuff" I mean.

Stuff.

(Things I have actually made)

Websites, blogs, writing, temporary tattoos, posters, ads, animations, plush toys, paintings, poems, books, rubber stamps, ads, grocery store packaging.

A whirlwind of stuff.

"That sounds expensive and difficult"

Yes. That's the bad news. There is no magic solution to it aside from "be careful with your time and cash and contracts and good luck."

I am not a soft person who is going to promise you everything is going to be okay and if you just work hard enough then things will work out and if you're talented enough then money and clients and business will come to you.

The brutal reality is it is going to be extremely difficult for as long as you do it and my #1 piece of advice is "constantly evaluate if you would find more happiness in a traditionally structured job doing weird stuff on the side."

It is absolutely possible to make a weird job.

It gets easier if you have financial support from family and/or a partner who will help you survive the lean times. I mention this in the spirit of honesty -- a lot of folks with weird jobs had/have one, or both.

In my opinion, this isn't talked about enough, and it leads to this mystic "This person must be doing well and I can't get off the ground, ergo something is wrong with me / my work / my process / my..." -- not necessarily.

Right, wrong, or indifferent -- some people have extra-to-their-personal resources help that allows them to make stuff. More, bigger, and/or faster.

I had the advantage of starting 30 years ago when the talent pool was smaller and harder to find and the work was harder to understand by people who were hiring.

Take what you have and try to make more of it being careful to spend as little as you can with it as it grows.

That's the essence of business.

Everything else is salad dressing.

SO MANY WORDS

I'll wrap up:

Start small and affordable

Figure out how to keep going when you want to stop but can keep going

Figure out how to stop when you want to keep going, but can't

Figure out how to start again when you have to stop

This isn't a moral or ethical dilemma -- it's business.

Cold, hard, ruthless business.

"Does it make sense to continue putting resources into this? Yes? Keep going.

"No? Pause.

"It never will make sense? Do this as a hobby, possibly an extensive and advanced hobby, possibly as 'this is my job in the sense I spend my resources here and the tasks I do for a company for money are life maintenance, on par with brushing my teeth."

Never work for free. Barter to a level mutual benefit.

If you want to work with other people, build a portfolio and keep it stocked with the stuff you want to do. Make up your own projects from literal scratch.

Most of the time, real work is better than personal work

BUT personal work is always better than no work.

This is cross-sectional -- if you want to make logos, it's better to show real work logos.

If you don't have any, make personal work logos and fold these into real work brochures, which you WILL DO but DONT WANT TO DO, as you build your logo business.

As your logo business builds up, replace real work logos + keep personal work logos and reduce brochures until you have enough (of either form) of logos to just have a logo portfolio.

Here is that video from Jim Coudal again talking about his (former?) design firm, Coudal Partners, and how it evolved to partner to create Field Notes

A final disclaimer:

I do not know Jim Coudal, I've never worked with him or FIeld Notes, they don't know I exist in any capacity. His projects are significantly larger than anything I have the appetite to tackle (I like small, weird things nearly exclusively)

This video + countless similar talks helped me build me up to where i am with advice, ideas, and the strength to get through the invariable weird / hard times.

[mintmoth]

Hi! I'm a super big fan of your art, everything is so pretty and amazing and I just wanna consume it every time I see one of your comics or illustrations. I just wanted to ask (cause I looked around a lil but didn't see anything covering this, if I missed it so sorry haha) what art program/tablet do you use to draw? Also, do you have any tips for beginning artists? I'm trying to get into drawing but I'm not too sure where to start TwT

AAAAA 😭😭 you're too sweet!! Thank you so much!

Also omg personally I use an iPad with the program/app procreate on it to draw!

I'm gonna put everything else under a read more since I got a little wordy oops

Honestly if I were to offer any beginning artist tips I think the biggest one is to just have fun. I know it sounds silly but really like just have fun and don't worry about what you're drawing being perfect or exactly what you had in mind or anything like that. As long as you're having fun and doing your best and not stressing about what you're creating you'll find yourself wanting to draw and create more- and it's within time and persistence that your skills develop

Also while it's good to draw every day since you do need to actively draw more to improve, don't stress about making sure you do! Just go at your own pace and draw when you feel like it!

I think I stress both of these points since they're things I've been working on and struggling with off and on too, realizing I don't have to be constantly drawing and that what I do draw doesn't have to be perfect, and honestly my comics have been a great exercise in letting myself make things "imperfect"

Relating to actual drawing skill sets, I do think that doing figure drawing is incredibly important since learning anatomy is crucial to drawing, even if it's not the most fun thing. Really if you see someone in a cool pose- typically real life photos- if you just try to see the shapes the human body makes and just loosely sketch a messy version of where their body shapes are can help. You don't have to break them down super basically like some tutorials do, unless that helps you! Everyone draws differently so there's no Right Way to do anything. Here's some examples from some I did a while back! I used highlighters since it made it so I couldn't erase, so I had to be more purposeful in my lines, but you can use any medium you want!

And don't worry if it doesn't look exactly like the photo you're drawing from- you're learning!

Another thing is that references are your friend, looking at things and figuring out how to draw them is incredibly helpful so don't be afraid to look up anything you're trying to draw for help

Something I used to do specifically for learning, was looking at photos or even pieces of art I thought were cool and then trying to draw something how I saw it, to understand someone else's use of shape and form. These were things I kept in sketchbooks to just figure out how to draw things like hands and feet and legs, using real life and other's works as a reference to teach myself

Then later while drawing on my own, if I couldn't figure out how to draw something I would go back to my own references and practices to help myself by using my own referenced art as a reference- here's a whole page of hands I drew a couple years ago while looking at photos of hands and also some art (uhhh I believe it was from GinjaNinjaOwO on youtube- if you DO post anything you've referenced poses or elements from, be sure to credit the original artist you've taken reference from!)

You can see I've got a lot of mistakes and scribbles and wonky forms- because I was just trying to understand the shapes and practice drawing hands on my own time, this wasn't anything I had ever drawn with the intention of posting lmao

But! You can do this for any kind of thing you're trying to learn, from arms to facial shapes to hands- just learning what kind of shapes and forms bodies or anything else you're trying to draw take

As far as the side of what kind of stuff to USE to draw, really I'd say to not be afraid of pencil and paper, I know digital art can have a nice and clean polish to it, but especially if you're learning it's really nice to just have a sketchbook (any kind work, just find paper you like! I've been using dot grid notebooks lately!) and a pencil or pen or really anything you feel comfortable with, that you can just loosely draw with and use whenever you like

For digital hardware while I do LOVE the iPad, I know they're pricier and not everyone jives with them, so I'd recommend drawing tablets by the brand Huion, since I've had a great time with them in the past when I used my laptop with Paint Tool Sai, which I also highly recommend as a drawing program, but keep in mind you can use anything! I have a friend who makes AMAZING works just using mspaint lmao

Honestly! In the end, like I said, just focus on having fun and drawing things that you want to without worry for being perfect or 100% anatomically accurate or anything. There's fundamentals that are the best base to build off of but never stress too much about it. Have fun creating! 💙💜

#ask #anonymous #mint rambles #i hope any of this is helpful im so bad at explaining lmao

[sabertoothwalrus]

Hey Saber! Did you ever go to art school? I've been considering it for a while but I don't feel as though I have enough potential to do so. If it's too personal you don't have to reply but I just wanted an artists opinion.

I’ll actually be transferring as a junior to CSUF this fall to start my animation degree! So yes, I have taken some lower division art classes, but honestly I think I’ve learned more on my own and my classes just gave me the chance to refine what I already knew.

It’s important to note: I’ve been drawing since I was 8 years old. Which means I have 16 years of experience under my belt. I’d been drawing for 10 years before I started college. And honestly, I feel like my art improved more in the two year break I took during the pandemic than it ever had before, just from the sheer amount I was drawing!

I also have been driven for a very long time. Since I was 12, I knew I wanted to be a storyboard artist, and eventually try to pitch my own tv show.

And as I get closer to entering the industry, I’m learning that the general consensus is your portfolio is what gets you hired, not your degree. You can get a Bachelor’s in art, but if your portfolio isn’t There Yet, you may still need to keep at it for a while. You can never go to school at all, be completely self-taught, and have an amazing portfolio! There was a point at the end of 2021 where I felt like I had developed enough skills to build a portfolio, it was just a matter of actually making one, but I decided I’d rather get a formal animation education and build my portfolio with guidance from professors.

I don’t know what your current level of experience is, or what your goals are, or even what field of art you’d like to be a part of (comics? illustration? Graphic design? animation? visdev? character design? layout design? storyboarding? 3D animation? live action vfx? game design/animation? etc etc) You say you don’t feel as though you don’t have “potential”, but that is completely up to you!!!!! If YOU are not confident in your art, your art will not be confident.

There are so many benefits of taking art classes! You can take as many or as little as you like! You don’t even have to try to get a degree if you don’t want to. Find a community college and look for art classes there. Maybe, you take some and you realize that an art career isn’t for you, but you still want to refine your skills a bit. Maybe you want an opportunity to try ceramics or printmaking or life drawing or watercolor. Maybe you go for the community, for meeting other artists in your classes or even the school’s art club! Finding a group that can help inspire you but ALSO help you get feedback is, in my opinion, perhaps one of the most crucial steps to being able to improve your art rapidly. I’ve met some of my best friends in my college’s art club. Art-focused discord servers are great for this too!

Don’t sell yourself short by thinking you’re “not good enough” for art school. You go there to LEARN, so it’s ok if you don’t know everything. But you only get out of it as much as you put in.

[thestarlightforge]

Some thoughts on hope, honesty and storytelling from a director’s POV.

I’ve tried to articulate what frustrated me about Multiverse of Madness many times, and they’ve all delved into some combination of A) breaking down the misogynistic, reductive, antisemitic tropes it employed; B) delving into comic book and MCU lore that illustrates why it’s mostly nonsense; and C) character analysis.

But I was thinking about it again today, this time in the context of my aesthetic as a director and writer.

This week, I’ve been at the Kennedy Center’s Director’s Intensive, an amazing annual event that unites early-career directors in community with professionals in theatre. Guests range from pros in dramaturgy, intimacy choreography, stage design, directing, performance, and more.

In several exercises, I’ve refined my thinking on the roles hope and hard truth play in my storytelling. I love hope. It’s my bread and butter. But I hate it when I feel it’s been delivered cheaply—without digging into the realities of how horrible the world can be. Just doesn’t feel earned.

This is why I struggle with the original Little Mermaid cartoon. To me, in addition to its notes on misogyny, consent, class struggle and female power, it’s so clearly a disability story. In Ariel’s most famous ballad, she croons her belief that to be a part of the world she loves—to dance, discover and be free—she has to be able to walk and run. Then, she enters “man’s world” with fully-functioning legs—you can’t CONVINCE me Ursula would’ve given her those. To add ANOTHER layer, when she discovers she’s mute, it’s taken as fact that means she can’t communicate. As if sign language completely doesn’t exist—and again, you can’t CONVINCE me that Ariel, intrepid scholar of all things human, “didn’t know” about sign language. But the story gets resolved with little change to her views: She gets the man (she barely knows), her voice (she doesn’t need), sexy legs (for fitting in) and the world (which looks much like her greatest idealization).

The world doesn’t change. It doesn’t let her down. She’s magically “cured.” She has to change. So to me, her “happy ending” felt hollow and mostly devoid of truth.

Thus bringing me back to Multiverse of Madness and WandaVision.

A lot of fans argued Wanda doesn’t face enough accountability in WandaVision. I feel that ignores the show’s symbolism as a grief epic, abstractions of Wanda’s compounded trauma, and her mental state/ability to even be held accountable in that situation. But in a literal reading, to some extent, I agree. In MoM, people had similar (even less ambiguous) concerns... Most of which I have no desire to delve into again here.

The important aspect, though, is hope. In WandaVision, the subject matter was a series of hard truths and revelations—death after death, unconscionable loss. But it doesn’t read like a funeral. It reads like a celebration of life. And the central dramatic argument of Wanda’s story, to me, is that no matter how utterly broken or lost you are, you can still be a good person—even a hero—if you keep trying and lead with your heart.

So many people hung their hope on Wanda. Queer people, young people, women, outcasts, people who struggle with their own experiences of mental illness and loss. I believe that as artists, we are responsible to the work, our collaborators, our communities, ourselves and the audience—but when we offer hope, we take on an extra responsibility to the audience/the world.

People are going to feel however they feel; it isn’t up to us to fully mitigate that, nor can we. But we ask audiences to be vulnerable—to get invested in our stories and, for however long, trust us with their hearts—and as long as we stay truthful while doing it, it’s the right thing to do not to crush them.

To quote Silver Linings Playbook:

“The world's hard enough as it is, guys. It’s fucking hard enough as it is.”

Wanda’s story in Multiverse of Madness ended with her partial redemption and sacrifice—that’s how Stephen and 838-Christine frame it, for the brief time they talk about it. With the knowledge that she destroyed the Darkhold, an ancient evil, and broke its hold on her with the power of her compassion.

But you know what it also was? A suicide attempt. (One that, if that red flash was her magic saving her, she was lucky to survive.) She is a character known for mental illness, both in the MCU and in her decades-long history in comics. And—whoever you decide is responsible, be it Raimi, Waldron, Feige, other heads at Disney, or some combination—MoM decided that the answer to her story should be suicide. Worse, they’re presently unwilling to classify/discuss it as such.

So any hope we get from her “sacrifice,” her partial redemption, the red flash after—it rings hollow. Because it fails to acknowledge the hard truth.

#anyways #director thoughts #theatre #dc theatre #kennedy center #director #writers #writerslife #multiverse of madness #doctor strange and the multiverse of madness #wandavision #the little mermaid #disability #disability pride month #dramaturgy #screenwriting #women writers #writer life #young avengers #the children’s crusade #wanda maximoff #michael waldron #sam raimi #kevin feige #marvel studios #marvel mcu #scarlet witch #tw suicide

[38sr]

How did you break into the animation industry?

Oh buckle up 'cause this is a bit of a story. Before starting, I wanna let anyone reading this to know that there's no one absolute way to break into the animation industry. From my experience, I've learned that breaking in has a lot of factors that are often out of your control. If anything, it's a combination of hard work and luck. Sometimes you're at the right place and the right time. Or you happen to know the right people or you are the right fit for a job. Overall, don't be so hard on yourself if you are still trying to break in (or have and just struggling to find the next gig). Often times it's not you as a person/artist, but really if everything else that you cannot control fits in that moment. And with that, let's start this two part story of how I broke into animation. Part 1: Lemme tell you how I got to Sesame Street.

So in 2017, I was a senior in college and my school for some strange reason made it a graduation requirement for students to do an internship in their respective major. While it was an incentive to get students experience, this only worked for the fine arts and illustration students due to the school having a lot of connections with local comic artists and galleries. For the animation department, however, we really didn't have many resources since our program was only 4 years old at that point (very, very new). So I started searching online for any animation internships since my school couldn't really help. I applied to many internships but only got an interview for one: FableVision in Boston.

To be honest, I really thought I was going to get that internship with no doubt. I already knew the people who worked there, had recently went to their anniversary party where they told me their internships were opening again and they wanted me to apply. So I did, got an interview instantly, took the train down and had the greatest interview of my life. I was told I'd hear back by the end of March and excitedly waited for the email.

Except I didn't hear back until April. And they had chosen an illustration student from my school instead of me. I was devastated. It felt like the ground beneath me crumbled and I was falling into a pit of darkness. It was April, there were no more internships, the semester ended in a month and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to graduate. And to top it off, this rejection really made think I was a bad artist and an undesirable hire. I remember being so bummed about it for days, feeling so unmotivated and scared about what to do next....and really unsure how to process the rejection altogether.

So, I contacted my mentor who at the time was a character designer at Sesame Workshop. He was my mother's friend from church and known me since I was a kid. He didn't start mentoring me until high school and was always transparent about his experience working in children's TV animation as a black creative (for those who don't know I am also black). I poured out my heart and asked him, "How do you deal with rejection from a job you really wanted?" And in short, he said, "Sometimes the job you think is perfect for you isn't what you need in order to grow and that's okay. Just because one door closes doesn't mean another door won't open so you just have to be patient and keep working hard." I didn't feel better right away but it was enough for me to realize I couldn't take the rejection personal. I probably wasn't the right fit.

But little did I know that in the next few days I would receive an email from Sesame Workshop requesting me (upon a recommendation) to fill out an application for their internship program when the deadline passed a week ago. I immediately knew it was my mentor who gave the recommendation and I will be forever thankful for him helping me get my first animation job on Sesame Street. And that's kind of the end of that part haha.

But you're probably wondering, "Wait, but you got the job. You broke in. So what's the second part?"

Part 2: The Nickelodeon Artist Program After Sesame Street and graduating college, I didn't get my next studio gig until 2 years later in 2019. I did small indie animation projects and commissions, but was having a hard time breaking into a storyboarding gig. I took tests and got rejected, applied to many jobs and got rejected, just a whole lot of rejections haha. At the same time, my older sister had moved back into my parents' house and we both expressed how we wanted to move to California for job purposes. So in that summer, we took a trip together to California and I finally got to meet some friends who did work in the animation industry. I just remember on the plane back to New York thinking, "Damn....I really have to be there if I wanna break in." So my sister and I both agreed we'd save up money and move out together in the next 1-2 years.

Once I got home, I heard about the Nick Artist Program and that applications were open until August 1st. It was the last week of July and I thought, "I don't know if I can make anything good....but I rather try than not try." So in 3 days (I do not recommend doing a whole sequence in 3 days) I boarded a sequence from my personal project, Hollowville, and submitted sketchbooks pages of thumbnails, character design sketches along with my resume two days before the deadline. To be honest, I really didn't think I was gonna hear back from them. At that point, I was so used to rejection that I had already dispelled any hope the moment I clicked the send button. I know that's pessimistic but that's how I am haha. Until a month later, I get a call from California. At that same moment, I was exchanging phone numbers with an industry friend who lived in California. So assuming it was them, I picked up the phone and the following happened: Me: Hello? Person: Hello, is this Li? Me: Oh yeah. This is she.

Person: Great! This is the Nickelodeon Artist Program and we're calling to inform you that you've been selected to move onto to the quarter final interviews.

And I just. I cried on the phone. It's so embarrassing thinking back now but it was so unexpected that the tears started flowing out. After that call, I proceeded to go through the most intense interview process I'll ever experience in my life and was officially selected as a trainee right after Thanksgiving weekend (which meant I had only a month to move out to California). And that was my final breakthrough into the animation industry. There's a lot more details I glossed over since these posts have word count limits....but that pretty much sums up how I broke into animation haha.

I don't know if this story will be helpful for anyone out there who wants to break in and having a hard time. But I hope what you take away from this is that breaking in is different for everyone. There will be a lot of rejections, but you can't take them personal. Almost all the time it's about being the right fit which isn't really quantifiable. You're not a bad artist and aren't unskilled, there are just variables out of your control that are the ultimate deciding factor. So I implore anyone who aspires to work in animation to keep working hard, keep improving and never forget that just because one door closes it doesn't mean another won't open up ahead.

#ask #send me asks #animation industry #animation #breaking into animation #industryqs

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Don’t Forget to Write (3)

AO3 -> first, previous, next

Fandoms: DC (Batman comics)

Summary: From Dick’s POV.  Damian happened to win a contest to illustrate a new book by an up and coming author. Being the good brother he is, Dick decided to check the book.He quickly realized he was reading a  very first hand account of one of Jason’s old cases, and deciding to act like a normal person would, he decided to read some of the author’s other works. What he found shook the very foundation of what he thought  was true?  

Warnings: rated T - mostly for swearing and questionable mental health. Amnesia

Parings: none

Notes: originally uploaded to AO3. Cross-posted to tumblr

They didn’t hear anything directly from Jason over the next week. It wasn’t like Dick was worried or anything. Okay, so he was worried.

Every night, at least one of them would stop by the vantage point across from Jason’s apartment, just to make sure he was okay. Unlike before, he now kept his curtains closed forcing them to turn to thermal vision just to make sure he was still there.

It bothered Dick enough that he might have looked in on his volunteer work a couple times. As Nightwing. From a safe vantage point. He was pretty sure Jason hadn’t seen him. It would be more than a little awkward to explain if he had.

While they waited for Jason to reach out, Babs continued to monitor what she could on her end. They were starting to get hints that some of Black Mask’s men were going to go after Jason all because a fictional retelling of the story of how he got his unique features scratched the man’s paranoia. They were certain he found out from Jason’s so-called liaison. As a result, they needed to alert Jason. So, they were going to do it the only logical way their family handled such a situation, by breaking into his apartment. What could go wrong?

When he and Bruce entered through the window, they didn’t find anyone. Concerned, they began searching the small apartment for any signs of what may or may not have happened. Everything seemed to be in order. Jason’s few possessions were neatly tucked away. There were no signs of scuff marks around the furniture, and there were freshly dirtied dishes in the sink. The containers Alfred lent him sat neatly cleaned on the kitchen counter. Either someone went out of their way to make sure it appeared there was nothing wrong, Jason went willingly, or he was caught outside the apartment. Or everything was just fine, and he happened to take a stroll in the middle of the night, in Crime Alley.

As he continued to check around the apartment, his eyes drifted upwards to a maintenance hatch. He’d forgotten some of the older apartments sometimes had them. It seemed a bit too small for Jay to hide himself in, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any clues inside of it. As he carefully approached it, he wasn’t expecting it to pop open. Nor did he expect someone to launch themselves out of it and attack him.

As much as he hated to admit it, it was only his training that let him catch what turned out to be a tire iron with his escrima stick. After realizing the person wielding it was Jason, he pulled back to see what he would do. His brother, now aware of who he had just attacked, backed away but remained in a defensive stance.

“How’d you even put yourself in there?” Dick honestly asked him as he signaled to Bruce it was okay. He also ignored Babs’ snickers. No doubt she was going to make sure everyone saw that footage.

“Practice.” Jason’s brusque reply caught him off guard.

“Why?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because I live in Gotham where home invasions on the third floor of an apartment building aren’t as uncommon as you’d think.” Jason leaned against the nearest wall and crossed his arms. While he appeared more relaxed, he didn’t let go of his weapon. “I was wondering when you’d finally come from a visit. You haven’t exactly been subtle with your stalking, but I can’t quite figure out what I might have done to get your attention.”

Dick elected to ignore the stare from Bruce and turn his attention to the window so he could scowl at Steph, who was openly laughing at him from the fire escape.

“You’ve caught the interest of Black Mask,” Bruce told him as he tried to keep his voice neutral, but there had been a slight slip. Being forced to treat his lost son as a stranger was affecting him more than Dick originally thought it was.

“Yeah, looks like he wants to have a chat with you. I guess the way you portray him in your new book isn’t all that flattering,” Dick added on the off-chance Jason’s ability to translate Bruce speak was off-line with his other memories.

Jay moved the tire iron so it was pinned between his arm and side as he ran his hands over his face. “Don’t tell me the famed vigilantes of Gotham have started believing that nonsense too.”

Even with the cowl, Dick could tell Bruce raised an eyebrow. “Your newest draft accurately describes Black Mask’s first attempt at criminal activity, including the injury that disfigured his face.”

“Bullshit.” His brother tensed as he moved the tire iron back to his hand.

“Jay, it doesn’t really matter what we do or don’t believe,” Dick spoke quickly as he moved between him and Bruce. “The important thing here is that a crime lord, who I might add is extremely volatile and paranoid, seems to think you have information about him that you shouldn’t.”

“So, you broke into my home just to warn me?” His words were slow and deliberate as if he wasn’t sure he believed them.

Dick smiled at him. “Do we seem like the type who would knock?”

“I mean, you could, but it would ruin the image.”

“We aren’t currently sure when Black Mask will make his move,” Bruce stated. He seemed to be both amused and exasperated by their bantering. Some things never changed. “We can’t guarantee your safety if you decide to remain here.”

“If you let us, we can take you somewhere safe.” It took everything in Dick’s being to not outright beg his brother to go with them. They couldn’t risk losing him again.

Jason snorted. “Somewhere safe probably means the GCPD. Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll be fine on my own.”

“No, you will be under our care.”

At Bruce’s statement, Jason raised his eyebrows in surprise. “You’ll be protecting me? How? By keeping me under house arrest and patrolling my building? It’s not like you Bats operate in the daylight. Gotham’s criminals tend to keep the same schedule you do, but they aren’t afraid of moving in the daylight if necessary. Besides, if, I don’t know, say another breakout at Arkham happens on the same night Black Mask makes his move, I won’t be your priority.” The vitriol in his last few words hit almost as hard as a physical slap.

While it was subtle, Bruce flinched at Jason’s words. It was something everyone in the man’s life had dealt with at least once, and Dick could attest to it. There had been plenty of times where he and the others had gotten hurt in the field, and Bruce’s priority was to finish the mission instead of checking on them. In Jason’s case, if Bruce had decided to focus on him on that fateful day, maybe he wouldn’t have been killed.

“You will be offered temporary protection at our base of operations,” Bruce clarified. When Jason didn’t drop his guard, the man added, “Let us… let me help you. Please.” The emotion breaking through the careful façade of Batman’s image finally made Jason hesitantly agree.

…

It took less than ten minutes to pack some clothes and Jason’s most important belongings. Since there weren’t many of them, just the laptop, two books, the drawings, and the three plush animals, they easily fit. Much to Dick’s amusement, Jason also packed Alfred’s Tupperware. When it was brought up, Jason blushed and muttered something about how it wasn’t actually his, and that he needed to give it back. It took all of Dick’s willpower not to tease his brother about it.

When he was ready, they tried to coax him to go out the fire escape with them. However, Jason refused, saying he didn’t trust his hands enough to be able to safely climb down the ladders and would meet them around the corner. The rationale made sense, but something about it felt like a lie. As they left, Bruce radioed to the others to watch the other exits knowing Jason would likely try running.

They thought Jason would end up going out the back of the building, but he surprised everyone by taking to the rooftops. While he couldn’t get far without a grapple, he knew the layout of the area so well he was easily able to use the various fire escapes to dodge in and out of the buildings of Crime Alley. That familiarity caused them to lose sight of him multiple times. If it wasn’t for the tracker Bruce slipped into his bag, Dick believed there was a good chance they may have lost him.

With that said, Bruce did have an idea of where Jason was heading. He asked the rest of them to patrol while he intercepted him. And rather unfairly, in Dick’s opinion, he asked Babs to mute his side of the comms.

The others tried to comfort him by reminding him Jason was basically a civilian at this point. Gotham residents usually liked and respected their protectors but were also wary of them. But Jason wasn’t just a civilian. He was Dick’s brother, his first brother. Was it too hard for the others to understand that he just didn’t want to risk losing Jason again? No one was there to stop him the last time he ran, and it had led to his death.

About twenty minutes later, the radio silence broke on Bruce’s end when he announced that he was taking Jason back to the Cave. Judging by Babs’ poor attempt at stifling her laughter and Jason’s cursing, it didn’t go nearly as well as it could have. As much as he wanted to go to his brother’s side, he had to wait until the patrol was finished.

Babs did promise to show him the cowl footage though. Apparently, Jason managed to hit Bruce with a tire iron for the second time in his life when he found himself cornered in the home he once made for himself when he was on the streets. After a small scuffle, the only way Bruce was able to get him into the Batmobile was to cuff him.

As a way of trying to calm him, Cass stated Jason’s movements seemed conflicted while they chased him. Dick noticed the occasional hesitations, but figured his brother was trying to figure out what his next steps would be. Yet, as he thought about it more, the more it didn’t make sense. Out of all of them who once wore the title of Robin, Jason had been the best at responding to the flow of the fight. Once he had gotten sure of himself on the field, he rarely hesitated. Perhaps he knew he should trust them but couldn’t bring himself to do so.

Maybe breaking into his apartment hadn’t been the best way to gain his trust. Well, it wasn’t like they could take it back now. Besides, Jason would be back home soon. This time, there will be time to make amends.

…

When Dick returned to the Cave with the others, he found Jason was no longer cuffed, but he wasn’t exactly free to roam. Bruce had put him in one of the holding cells.

“Last time I checked, this isn’t the way to treat family,” he hissed at Bruce.

“If he’s allowed to roam, we can’t guarantee he will stay in the Cave,” their dad replied, matter-of-factly, irritating Dick more. Dropping his voice, he added, “Jason’s codes haven’t been changed since before his death. With how much he’s subconsciously remembered, I don’t want to risk an accidental breach.”

“Then change them!” Dick pretended to ignore the flash of hurt on Bruce’s face at that statement. “You can’t keep him in there.”

“It is only until we can capture Black Mask or his memories return.”

“I am not treating my brother like a criminal because of your paranoia,” Dick pointed an accusatory finger at the man, “decided the best way to protect him was to shove him in a glass box! It would be better to bring him upstairs, but I know you won’t do that.” Glancing towards Jason, who was attempting to make it look like he wasn’t paying attention to them, he lowered his voice. “And if you don’t remove that plaque from the memorial before he sees it, Bruce, so help me…”

“Uh…”

At Tim’s voice, Dick reigned in his anger. For the sake of Tim, Cass, and Damian, he tried to keep up appearances. They didn’t need to see the vitriol he could sling at Bruce. He made that mistake with Jason. Turning to see his younger siblings and Steph, who still counted, he gave them a tired smile. “What’s up?”

“What if at least one of us is with him at all times in the Cave so he doesn’t have to stay in there the entire time?” Steph suggested as he glanced towards Jason.

“I will watch him,” Cass promised.

“What if we show him some of his old case reports?” Tim suggested. “It might help jog his memory. Or ask him to help with some of the open ones.”

Steph sniggered. “You just want to work on something with your hero. When are you going to show him the stalker pictures?”

“Don’t you dare breathe a word of that!” After glancing back towards the cell to see what Jason may or may not have heard, Tim shifted uncomfortably. “Actually… they might help his memory. I’d have to go through them to figure out which ones would be best…”

“What about you, Dami?” Dick noticed Damian had been somewhat distracted since returning to the Cave. He’d been staring at Jason. It wasn’t necessarily judgmental, but he did seem puzzled by him. That made sense. Unlike the others, he didn’t know much about Jason or how to interact with him. Dick could take part of the blame for that. It wasn’t right for them to shy away from the dead, but that’s exactly what they did. “Do you have any ideas?”

Damian didn’t respond immediately, deciding to carefully pick his words. “…Mother once said that as warriors, our battles are carved into our very souls, forcing the body to remember even if the mind failed. I had believed she referred to how movements become instinctual after enough training. Perhaps I had misunderstood what she meant.” He shifted ever so slightly. “While I doubt he would be able to handle our current level of training, joining in katas or sparring could prove beneficial.”

“Or some equipment maintenance,” he murmured as he considered Damian’s idea. It was just as viable as any of their other ideas.

A loud sigh from Babs came across the comm of the Batcomputer. “Maybe you should actually ask him what he wants before you make decisions for him. I don’t know about you, but I’d be pretty pissed if I’d just gotten captured and thrown in a cell before being told I was going to be forced to join your cult.”

“It’s not appropriate to compare us to a cult, Oracle.” Bruce sounded offended.

“I can kind of see her point though.” Dick made sure to look Bruce directly in the eye for his next line. “To the uninitiated, it could seem like a cult.” The angry stare was completely worth it.

He could feel Babs’ disappointment through the line. “Of course you had to make a joke. Why am I not surprised?”

“I’m hurt. It’s like you don’t even know me.” Glancing back toward Jason, he sighed. “I’ll go talk to him.”

“Maybe me or our resident fanboy should,” Steph countered as Tim made an offended noise at the nickname. “I know this is important to you, but you and the Boss Man did just break into his house and basically kidnap him.”

Although he wanted to argue, Dick had to admit she made a point. “I’ll go get him some water. Can someone ask Agent A to get a cot set up for him?” Glancing towards Bruce, who had been even quieter than he normally was, he added, “I’m serious about that plaque. Get rid of it, or I will. And I don’t think you want me touching it.”

He stormed off towards the MedBay where they had the water. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. Maybe it would have been better for Bruce to make it appear Jason was being passed off to the Waynes. That’s how it had worked the first time around with him… no, that wasn’t quite right. Wasn’t Jason temporarily in a foster home that doubled as some shady front or something first?

Why did his siblings end up involved in the weirdest things? All of them, including himself, were just magnets for trouble. Maybe that’s why they all ended up under Bruce’s care. It was something to think about another day.

Grabbing an unopened water bottle, he made his way back over to where Jason was being held. To put it mildly, his brother was pissed. With an arm above his head and pressed to the glass of the cell, he was attempting to loom over Tim and Steph. With his stormy expression and how the scarring twisted his features, he looked terrifying. Too bad for him, it was hard to threaten vigilantes.

“Oh, it’s you,” he snarled when he caught sight of Dick approaching. “If this is how you treat the people you want to protect, I think I’d rather be one of your enemies.”

“I didn’t think he put you in there,” he explained as gave his brother an apologetic smile. It just seemed to worsen Jason’s mood. “But I definitely misjudged how afraid he is. We’re trying to work on a compromise.”

Jason glanced at Tim and Steph. “They told me. But what could I have done to make the big black bat afraid of me?”

“He’s not afraid of you,” Tim quickly spoke up. “He’s afraid for you.”

That made Jason shift uncomfortably. “Why? Other people in this city have been threatened, and he hasn’t….” His eyes narrowed. “He… you know who I was… Is that it?” When they didn’t answer him fast enough, he took that as confirmation. His anger seemed to deflate as his shoulders sagged. Turning, he plopped on the seat in the cell and hung his head. “All this time, there were people who knew. The scars should have clued me in that I was involved in something criminal. Why else would I have gotten on your radar?” He glanced up and gave them a smile full of self-loathing. “So what did I do? Ran some drugs? Helped some traffickers? Got wrapped up in whatever scheme that bastard clown came up with this month?”

Dick tried to ignore how eerily accurate Jason’s last guess was. “That’s… you weren’t a criminal. You were someone’s son and brother.”

“Don’t lie. No one missed me. I woke up alone with nothing, not even a name.”

“Dammit Jay!” he snapped. before letting his temper fall into something more resigned. “If I knew, I would have come and got you. But how do you search for someone who died six years ago?”

He hadn’t meant to be so loud. Or maybe he hadn’t been, and it was just his brother’s flinch that made it seem that way. No matter which, the silence that followed was deafening. He didn’t want this conversation to go this way. It should have been soft and controlled, not raw and emotional.

“Up until your appearance on the Vicki Vale Show, no one here knew you were alive,” Tim explained as Dick struggled to get his emotions under control. “You were declared dead when you were fifteen.”

Jason’s eyes widened as he glanced down at his mangled hands. For a moment he didn’t move, giving Dick that image of someone who was more dead than alive again. Taking a deep breath, he leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. “That explains a lot.”

Anyways,” Dick changed the subject, glad Jason hadn’t wanted more information for now. It wasn’t a conversation he was ready to have. “I brought you some water. Someone will be by in a little to get a cot set up and bring you some food.” When Jason eyed the water suspiciously, Dick made sure to open it and drink a little so his brother knew it wasn’t some sort of trick.

It had been a quirk of Jason’s when he first arrived in the Manor. He wouldn’t drink tea or water or anything in those first few weeks if he didn’t see Alfred or Bruce pour their own drink from the same source and take a sip. He had no idea how bad things had been on the streets for his brother to have developed that behavior, but it must have helped keep him alive and mostly intact.

Although Jason still didn’t relax, he mumbled something about leaving the bottle. Dick would consider that a win. “I know Red Robin and Spoiler,” he eyed the two as they slinked away, “went over some options with you. We’ll revisit them tomorrow. None of us want you in there.”

“Except him.” He jerked his head towards Bruce.

“He wants to keep you safe and has the emotional intelligence of an ant.” Dick ran his hand through his hair. “I mean, no one in this family is great at discussing our problems, but he takes it to a new level. After losing a son, his overprotectiveness got a thousand times worse.”

“Did he lose him because of your…” Jason gestured at his mask, “job?”

“Yes and no. One of our rogues killed him, but he wasn’t the main focus of the attack, just a prize. I don’t know the full story, and I don’t think anyone other than my brother did. It’s not like I could ask him.” Dick wasn’t equipped to have this conversation with Jason.

“He was the lost Robin.”

The certainty of Jason’s voice caught Dick off guard. “How did you…?”

“Crime Alley still talks about it.” His brother’s gaze grew distant. “How the boy vanished and how Batman became a monster. They whispered it was the anger of a father losing a child.”

Dick sat down in front of the cell and leaned back on his arms. “He met the second Robin in Crime Alley.” He gave a conspiratorial grin. “Believe it or not, he was stealing the tires off the Batmobile.”

The way Jason’s eyebrows shot up in surprise made him chuckle. “Kid had some balls. Must have been desperate if he even thought to approach it.”

“I miss him. Wish I hadn’t let my personal problems with B get in the way of my relationship with him.” He sighed as he glanced back towards Tim and Steph, who were talking with Cass, and then over at Damian, who was still near Bruce. “I learned my lesson and have done everything I can to be there for them. But enough about that. Let me go check on the snacks you’re supposed to get. Is there anything you need?”

“Yeah, to get out of here so I can get back home.”

Dick’s smile wavered. “We’re working on it, Jay.”

…

He wasn’t sure how much sleep he actually got. Most of his dreams were filled with explosions and disembodied screams. Assuming it was a sign that he needed to go make sure Jason was okay, Dick gave up on sleep and made his way down to the Cave. He wasn’t exactly keen on putting on his costume again so soon. Gym sweats and his mask should be good enough.

As he entered the Cave, he caught sight of Damian in his Robin costume sharing tea with Jason. The door to the cell had been opened, but their brother hadn’t exited it yet.

“I’m surprised you’re down here so early,” Dick called out as he approached them.

Damian’s expression turned sour as he appraised him. “Father won’t be pleased with what you deemed appropriate attire.”

“He’ll live. I thought you had school this morning?”

“I did, but someone called in a threat against the facility. It’s believed to be a prank, but the staff is taking the necessary precautions.”

“Good ol’ Gotham. Some things never change.” Jason gave a slight chuckle before taking another sip of tea.

That caught Dick’s attention. “Did something like that happen to you?”

His brother tilted his head. “I’m pretty sure the Riddler once tried using the gym as a death trap when I was really little. Huh? I didn’t realize I still had any of those memories.” His surprise at the recall seemed genuine, so maybe it had been recently uncovered.

If that was the case, that was a good sign. “Once we get clearance to show you more of the Cave, we should show you some of the other things we’ve swiped from the Riddler over the years. Maybe it’ll bring up some more memories.” Especially the ones from Jason’s cases, but Dick knew better than to state that outright. “I don’t think anyone in Gotham has been spared from dealing with at least one of our Rogues. Anyways, did you save any of Agent A’s tea for me?”

Jason looked him directly in the eyes as he poured himself another cup and purposely showed that was the last of the pot. “It appears we’re fresh out.”

“I guess I deserve that.” It didn’t stop him from stealing the last of Alfred’s scones he’d sent down with the tea. The outrage on Jason’s face made it worth it. For a moment, it reminded him of those rare times he had been over for breakfast when Jason first came to the Manor. He had been so protective of his food. “So, what have you two been talking about?”

“I have been providing him with more information about our… organization.”

Instead of agreeing, Jason rolled his eyes at Damian. “He’s been giving me a very biased run down of everyone else associated with you guys. I think you, Batman, and your Agent A are the only people he’s spoken of in somewhat fond terms. He also promised to end me if I betrayed any of you as well as offering me fighting lessons because I’m ‘severely lacking in any semblance of fighting techniques.’”

“Robin,” Dick sighed. He knew his youngest brother meant well, but sometimes it didn’t come across that way.

Damian just huffed. “I spoke truly. He could benefit from being taught how to defend himself. A tire iron is hardly a viable weapon.”

“Anything can be a weapon, especially in Crime Alley.”

“While there is truth in that statement, proper form and training is needed to be able to handle any disadvantages such an object could grant you.”

Jason didn’t directly say anything. Instead, he gave Dick a look that plainly read ‘is this kid for real?’ There was such familiarity in the expression that it made him want to ruffle his brother’s hair, just like in the old days. But that wouldn’t be appropriate. Jay didn’t currently view him as family.

“It couldn’t hurt,” Dick stated with a shrug. “Besides, it gives you something to do other than just sit in there.”

“Like I can keep up with the great vigilantes of Gotham.” Something that seemed dark and self-directed snuck into Jason’s words.

Unsure what brought that on, Dick decided to risk it and pull Jason to his feet. “Don’t think like that. We all started somewhere. Besides, you proved you could outmaneuver some of us when you had the advantage with the terrain. I think you’ll do just fine.”

“Don’t blame me when you get disappointed.”

There was that negativity again. If Dick remembered correctly, Jason had been insecure about himself and how he measured against him and Bruce early on. Was that what was going on? Or was it something else?

Deciding it would be best to observe and analyze, he led Jason and Damian to the training area. If he was honest with himself, Dick was excited to help Jason relearn this part of his life. He wasn’t involved in the majority of His early training, unlike with Tim and Damian. It was surreal, in what he decided was a good way. While there was still no telling if Jason would ever return to the vigilante life, training was a bonding experience he never really got to have with his first brother.

They started slowly. It wouldn’t be right to try to get Jason to try anything advanced without getting a better idea of how well he moved. There was an understandable stiffness, but his movements were jerky and disjointed. As he continued, while he didn’t outwardly say anything, his skin paled as a sheen of sweat appeared. With how he set his expression in determination told Dick more than anything else. Jason was in agony as he tried to move.

It didn’t make sense. Nothing they were doing was hard, but as Dick paid closer attention to his brother’s odd movements, he began to realize just how broken Jason truly was. He’d died with shattered bones, and then when the universe decided to bring him back, it didn’t do him the courtesy of healing any of it. Jason suffered through the worst of it alone, and unlike the rest of them, didn’t have anyone to help lovingly piece him back together. Either desperation or determination had to be what allowed him to move as well as he did during his flight.

“I think we’ll stop here,” he decided as he requested that Damian go get Jason a water.

Uncertainty and distrust flickered across Jason’s expression as he watched him. “What?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry I pushed you. We,” Dick gestured upwards to show he meant everyone, not just him and Damian, “sometimes forget how it’s like for civilians. I should have realized earlier that you were hurting. How bad is it? Do you need anything?”

Jason shook his head. “I don’t like taking meds if I can help it. On bad days, I’ll sometimes use something over the counter, but I don’t want anything stronger. I’ve seen too many people lose themselves. In Crime Alley, sometimes the need to feel better becomes the only escape.” A hand passed over his eyes as if to hide his momentarily distant look. If Dick remembered correctly, Jason’s mother died from an overdose. Maybe it was another memory starting to break through. “I don’t want to risk falling into that trap.”

“If you need it, I can get you ice. We also have shower stalls over there. The heat could help.” Dick shifted uncomfortably as he made a mental note to contact Zatanna as soon as he could. His brother didn’t deserve to suffer. “But you didn’t really answer my question.”

A shrug answered him as Damian reappeared with water. “I don’t know what to tell you. It’s more the stiffness than anything else, and after last night... How the hell do you people tell time here? Anyways, don’t worry about it.” He glared up at the roof of the Cave before taking a drink from the bottle Damian wordlessly handed him before grimacing. “Kid, not that I’m not thankful, but how long was this bottle in that fridge?”

“I am not a kid,” Damian scoffed. “Pen… Agent A regularly restocks our supplies. While unlikely, it is possible something was missed.”

“Or someone recently used the drinks fridge to store food or samples again. I can’t tell you how many times that’s happened in the past. We can get you a new one.”

Jason debated it for a moment. “It’s just water, and I’m not one to waste. I’ll deal with it.”

Grabbing the bottle out of his brother’s hand before he had a chance to fight back, Dick took a swig. Coughing from the unpleasant and almost acidic taste, he walked over to the nearest ledge and poured it into the chasm below. “Yeah, you’re not drinking that. Glad I didn’t give you anything like that last night.” Dick made a face. “Well, decontaminating the drink fridge wasn’t on my list of things to do today.” He glanced at Jason. “Wanna help?”

He almost laughed at the incredulous look on his brother’s face. Almost. But he did allow himself to chuckle when Jason muttered, “When I got abducted by vigilantes, I didn’t think I’d have to help clean house.”

============

Notes:

So, I’m currently studying different types of fencing. One of the things you learn is that even rookies can get really good hits on veterans, and sometimes, instinctual moves end up working better than anything planned. Or sometimes, it makes things worse.

“The Bruce-English translator is not available at the moment. Perhaps you want to try the closest Non-communicative Parent proxy?” – quote from SummersSixEcho on the BatPham discord when she read that line about Dick translating Bruce speak for Jason.

Jason’s memorial says “Jason Todd: a good soldier.” Dick had very choice words about it when he saw it for the first time after confronting Bruce after not being told about Jason’s death. He’s the only one in the family who seems to have appropriately thought it was terrible. Even Alfred defended the decision to have it say that.

#don't forget to write #fanfiction #fanfic #Jason Todd #Red Hood #Dick Grayson #Nightwing #Bruce Wayne #Batman #DC comics #Writer AU

[jetsartdump]

What? A text post from me?

Yes! a few updates first:

So I've been MIA for a while now mostly because I've been working on couple projects and seasonal art block had been on my ass. So I mostly wanted to update y'all on how I'm doin and what I'm up to

Point 1: commission concepts

So I've been dawdling back and forth for the longest time since I came back on this platform. I've always wanted to do commissions but I just felt like my skills weren't enough. But since I've been making great strides in my artwork lately I'm working on some commission terms and conditions. Mostly looking at pitfalls other commissioners have and trying to midigate that for myself. So I'll keep y'all posted

Point 2: Comics, lore, au stories and other fun side things

So for the past few years I have had most of my ava/m art be more popular than my other works. So I'm going to take a break from mosting those kinds of stuff to focus on other hyperfixations of mine like Final Fantasy 14. I'm also working on some minecraft roleplays I want to illustrate and personal stories I want to tell. I might start up a few comics but lore, world building, and character building are still in the works.

Point 3: memes and silly posts

I just thought I should mention I might be doing more text posts or silly posts like this or answering asks. Speaking of--

Poit 4: ask box is open

Ask box has been closed for a while now but I'm opening it up now. Feel free to ask me stuff talk to the ava/m crew (after the hiatus on them) talk to OCs I introduce or send them fictional stuff. The sky's the limit.

Poit 5: future rebrands or changes

I like changing things up every now and again. So if I change ups designs the look of my page or other stuff about this little place just know it's just a new coat of paint once the last one starts peeling. For the moment this pain it nice and fresh so I might not change for a few more years.

But that's all from your favorite little winged gremlin. Until next time

-Jet the Art Dump

#update #text post #art update #life be like that sometimes #have a good day #:3c

[sanversandfriends]

One way to spark a writer's enthusiasm about a WIP is the promise of accompanying fan art. Not only is it exciting to see your story brought to life, but to paraphrase @Morganastorm24, even a small shift in perspective can inspire you to take a wildly different approach. Today, she'll share some of her inspirations along with advice on how to get started or unstuck.

Tell us a little about yourself. How long have you been creating fan art? What were some of your first subjects and what ships/characters in the SG universe have you illustrated?

I mentioned in my writing answers that I've been doing it for as long as I can remember, and the same applies with art. I'm generally a very creative person - writing, drawing, crafting - you name it, I'll happily do it. 

I inherited my creativity from my grandparents, or so I'm told. My grandfather used to drive buses back in the 50s and 60s and on his breaks he'd park up somewhere and sit and sketch his surroundings. For no reason other than he wanted to and liked doing it. He also enjoyed woodwork and crafting miniature models of things out of wood. He built me my very first dolls house and I helped him to decorate it and furnish it with miniature furniture.

My grandmother was a seamstress for the theatre and made all the costumes for various productions. She'd sketch the designs out first, and then sew all the costumes by hand. She was also a writer, though she kept her stuff very private, because it was a hobby for her but not one that she felt comfortable enough to share. Sometimes, I can understand why, because I feel the same. Growing up, I loved spending time with both of them because they shared their skills with me. 

What are your favorite mediums to work with?

Photoshop is a big favourite of mine, because you can do pretty much anything, so long as you can find the right images to merge together. I also love using pro-markers and other comic book markers.  What kinds of scenes do you enjoy illustrating? Do you have any favorite tropes or themes? Imagery that you like to work with?

I love to do anything, as long as I have a clear vision of it in my mind (when using photoshop), or I have an image I can use as a reference (when I'm drawing by hand). The only thing I can successfully draw freehand without any reference is a horse (my lifelong love of the animals showing through there). When I worked in a children's nursery, we often drew large images for the kids to decorate which would then be displayed on the walls. I was always the one who ended up drawing said images, and to be honest I loved it. When I left that job to start my current one, I was gifted two of the last things I'd drawn - the rose from Beauty and the Beast, and the Coca Cola Christmas Truck. I've kept them to this day, and they're in a protective folder in storage. 

Any advice for aspiring fan artists?

One thing I learned in art lessons when I was at school (and it has stuck with me to this day), is that if you're struggling to draw something, change the perspective. My art teacher told us the following story about a disabled man, and I've tried and tested this method myself. It really does work!

A young man in a wheelchair was asked to draw his wheelchair. He hated the thing, saw it as a hindrance that cut him off from everything that he'd been able to do before he was confined to it. It was a reminder of his past life and everything he had lost, so when he tried to draw it, he was full of anger and resentment, and eventually threw his pencil down in frustration, declaring that he couldn't do it.

Instead of giving up on him, his teacher took the wheelchair, turned it upside down and told him to try again, but don't draw it as a whole. See the individual shapes and draw those. Focus on one shape at a time. So the young man did. He drew what he could see - circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, cylinders - and when the teacher took his piece of paper and turned it round, he had drawn a wheelchair.  All because changing the perspective of the subject and breaking it down into basic shapes had made his brain approach the task differently.  So if you're ever stuck on something and you don't know how to move forward, or do what needs to be done, try looking at it from a different angle. It could be literal, like turning the chair upside down, or it could be figurative, like seeing a circle instead of a wheel, a tube instead of a handle, that sort of thing. Change the perspective and you might just surprise yourself.

Thanks for sharing with us, Morgana--and for making us continue to swoon over Alex!

And Maggie!

And Lena!

And...

#Supergirl #Fan Art #Finish the Fic #Sanvers #SuperCorp #Creativity #Getting Unstuck

[c0smiccom3t]

I'm going to be a little honest with you.

I've had some deep thoughts last night. Yes, its about Pocket Adventures, but not only that, it's about IRL stuff as well. I've been trying my best to find a school for september (either in another country in the EU or in Germany) and ive been trying to pay close attention to finish pocket adventures as well. So... here's the thing.

I'm thinking of taking a break from social media.

Yes. It's not only due to personal reasons. But it's also about how i want to not distract myself and want to work on D.D full-time. Which means i'll work like everyday off social media until P.A production has wrapped, so we can take a 2-month or longer break from working on d.d content and just focus on drawing art pieces. I don't want to stress myself or anybody else out, so from now on 'll try to get a decent sleeping schedule so i can wake up early to have breakfast, stay hydrated and work on d.d.

Sure, it's tough. But that's the indie creator thing for you. Not to mention, I'm a newcomer, so i still need to be taught and know how things work in the community. Especially for webcomics. (I'm not in animation yet, i am used to making comics, but once i finish animation school and get a degree i might as well start making indie animations as well.)

You all as well have to keep in mind that content creators and artists have a life outside of the internet, they have irl stuff to do and serious stuff to do as well. And right now, if i don't get enough money to go to Canada, i'll have to think of a Plan B, which is, find a school in another country part of the EU. It's challenging, but i'm trying.

In conclusion, i want to tell you all the truth. I think it's about time i take a break from social media. I've been active on socials for like, years! (2016 in my g+ era to 2023, today.) and i think it's about time i take a break. working on d.d full-time is important for me, but self-care and handling IRL responsabilities is even more important.

Now, if i DO end up going on break from socials, you can always find me on Discord, however, i'm not going to be available to talk all the time. mostly because of working on Dimension Dyfenders. The reason why i'll use discord is to contact the co-creator (aka Alex) in case we work on scripts for the next minisodes and think of ideas and work together and other stuff about d.d. Another thing is that... I'm the only illustator on the comic. However, i would LOVE to get some more people to help me illustrate for P.A and future comics as well, But i can't, i'm still a kid, and I can't do this whole indie thingies yet. (I'll be able to do it once i hit the big one-eight and/or get my own bank account with a lot of money, hopefully... Remember, artists and people who work on indie projects deserve to be paid and get breaks for all of their hard work)

Thank you all for everything. I am glad to have been in a place in where i could feel safe, happy, and included. This whole break thing is not going to be a Good-bye. It's just a See you next time. So, yes, if i stay inactive from socials for a while. this whole post is why.

[TL;DR: I'm thinking of taking a break due to IRL situations and wanting to work on Pocket Adventures full-time, if i end up taking a break, i am available on discord and just discord, working on d.d is important for me, but self-care is even more important. Thank you all for your support <3]

#There's going to be d.d news after all of this ends #i promise. #but for now its important that i take this decision as a up-and-coming young artist #Important #Dimension Dyfenders #Deep thoughts #[Comet rambles] #announcement #the break's not really going to be long btw #it's just going to be a little while. i'm doing this for the sake of my mental health #and to make sure to bring you guys more d.d content #comics take a lot of time. and thats okay. #we are NOT machines we are humans. and we need rest #Thank you all for your support and please stay patient for more pocket adventures content #We promise it's all going to be worth the wait.

[takerfoxx]

The Sandman, Season 1, Episode 6, "The Sound of Her Wings," First Impressions!

...why did this make me cry?

No, seriously. Why did this episode make me cry? I shouldn't be getting emotional here. I know this story! I know it backward and forward, so much so that I'm mouthing the dialogue along with the characters in places! And this episode changed very little! I knew how things would go down, I knew what would happen. So why did my throat feel all tight? Why was I wiping my eyes?

As I mentioned before, The Sound of Her Wings was a turning point for The Sandman, the point where it began to evolve past its horror roots and become something more. And that all falls upon the shoulders of one of its most iconic characters, second perhaps to Dream himself, introduced in this issue.

Death of the Endless.

Death has seen so many interpretations over the centuries, most of them grim (see what I did there?). Here and there there's been takes that have been more kind, presenting the Reaper as a guide rather than an executioner, but they have rarely been warm. Death of the Endless was groundbreaking, portraying her as this perky and cheerful Goth girl, one who was full of kindness and empathy, but also strength and understanding. As later issues would explain, Death was forced to truly understand what mortality feels like, to appreciate the weight of her function, and as such for all of her lighthearted cheer, she also has compassion for those she visits in their final moments, understanding the sadness of what they're going through and being that comforting presence that they need.

But man, there is just something about seeing all of that portray by an illustration and words on a page, and have it portrayed by an actual living, breathing human being.

Look, I know that I said I wasn't going to talk about the race and gender changes in the characters except when there's a story behind them like with Johanna Constantine, but I'm going to break that rule. I'll admit, I was a little put off by the casting, simply because Death's look is so iconic, and many other characters look like they've walked right off the page, so having her look so different was a bit jarring. But hey, when the comic's original author says that the change was simply because this was the actress that most perfectly captured the essence of the character, maybe give them the benefit of the doubt? Because Kirby Howell-Baptiste's performance here practically screamed, "SEE?! THIS IS WHY!"

This was the Death I want to greet me when I pass away. This is the Death I want waiting for my loved ones when they die. My God, it was beautiful.

However, even as I was getting all misty-eyed, there was one technical aspect I was wondering about. The Sound of Her Wings was a pretty short issue that didn't have a lot of plot, and it didn't look like they were adding much. So how exactly where they going to get a full episode out of it?

Folks, when it finally clicked for me what they were doing, I had the biggest grin. What they ended up doing was extremely clever, as they decided to combine it with another issue entirely, one that had a similar theme to The Sound of Her Wings but originally popped up much later, but now fit quite nicely as the episode's second half.

They combined it with one of my favorite issues, Men of Good Fortune.

I love the story of Hob Gadling, this random guy who just refuses to die because he doesn't feel like it. He and Dream's relationship as they meet once a century is fascinating, marking not only all the highs and lows in Hob's extended life, but also with Dream as well. And what's funny about their whole relationship is that Dream initially starting as a fun diversion, a little experiment into human nature, he's the one that ends up getting changed by it.

Hob does grow as a person over his centuries of life. He learns from his mistakes but makes new ones, he regrets bad things that he's done but still hurts people, but in the end his nature isn't changed. He remains as human as ever, just some guy who so happens to be immortal, continuing to try to work his way through this crazy thing called life. On the other hand, it is the cold and dispassionate Dream, who only began this whole endeavor as an amusing side-project, who in the end comes to realize that he does value Hob's company, that he does think of Hob as a friend.

While this adaptation is mostly faithful, down to many of the background tavern chatter, there are a couple of changes. One is one I didn't really care for, in that they took out Hob admitting that Dream was right about the slave trade and how much he regrets being a part of it. It's still implied, but him actually saying it was kind of important, especially if they do get to the storyline about him and his girlfriend at the Renaissance Fair.

But another change worked very well, in that by changing the timeline so that it takes place in the modern day instead of the eighties, Dream was actually still imprisoned, so he ended up missing their designated meeting, right after having a huge blow-up at the last one. As such, he tries to find Hob to make it up to him not out of obligation, but because he genuinely feels bad for letting his friend down (that's my take, anyway). And of course, Hob would buy the old tavern to keep it from getting condemned and leave Dream signs on where to find him. I especially like the idea that Hob just goes to New Inn (which I presume he also owns) to do paperwork in hopes of catching Dream there, which he does, and it's adorable. Dream is by choice eternally constant, where Hob has very few constants in his life, but Dream was one of them, and you can get a sense of how much these two came to mean to each other.

Also, it just works better to have Dream's reconciliation with Hob to take place after Death gives him a sense of perspective instead of immediately after he ruins Lyta Hall's wife and tells her that he's taking her child away. So there is that.

This was an absolutely beautiful episode, and one that is as much of a turning point for the show as it was for the comic.

Well, that's the first volume wrapped up. Time for The Doll's House!

#the sandman #neil gaiman #dream of the endless #death of the endless #hob gadling #the sound of her wings #men of good fortune #review

[comicweek]

THIS WEEK: Catwoman #43 proves why allowing a queer creator to move from using subtext to using text is important. 

Catwoman #43

Writer: Tini Howard Artist: BengalColors: Jordie Bellaire Letterer: Tom Napolitano Cover: Jeff Dékal

Here’s the thing, I know that Selina Kyle officially came out as bisexual in 2015, during the time period in which I wasn’t reading DC Comics, because I didn’t care for the New 52. I know it made a big commotion on social media, both from people excited about the decision to make decades of subtext into text, and from the people angry that “it came out of nowhere” and “ruined their childhoods.” Because that’s what happens every single time an existing character gets revealed to be queer. If the character has existed for even five years, there’s a certain contingent of fandom that screams bloody murder and that if creators want queer characters so bad they should just create new ones. I use five years as my tent-pole here because it happened with Jon Kent, a character who was introduced in 2015 but didn’t actually have any sort of personality until 2016. And if a queer creator does introduce a brand new queer character? Well then that same group of fans calls it pandering and that they should get their political agenda out of comic books, willfully misunderstanding that comics have always been and always will be political.

So it was no surprise to me when less than a year later, DC quietly ignored that Catwoman #39 ever happened. With Rebirth came a 50-issue focus on the Batman/Catwoman relationship, and her sexuality was nary a mention. When she was finally allowed a solo series again, after the break-up, the focus was on other aspects of self-discovery. DC Pride 2021 came and went without a mention of the character who was probably DC’s biggest named queer character. There were lots of reasons to celebrate that issue, and indeed, I did celebrate it. But there were fans who wondered why Catwoman was not included in the celebration. It felt like yet another case of bi-erasure. That since Catwoman had just been in a long-term, straight-passing relationship, there’s no need to ever talk about her being queer ever again. But our sexualities don’t just magically change just because we date one way or the other. Nor even if we show a preference for one or the other.

When Tini Howard took over the book in Catwoman #39, there was an immediate and sudden shift. A bisexual woman was writing a bisexual character who had mostly had that aspect of her character ignored for five years, and immediately let loose with making the book as unabashedly queer as she possibly could. Selina taking the time to inner monologue about how she has a type and it’s a type that both Onyx and Batman fit? Absolutely perfect.

This shift also is a good illustration of the drastic cultural divide that exists between the Marie Javins headed era of DC Comics and the C.B. Cebulskiheaded marvelous competition. Since Javins has taken over as Editor-in-Chief, there’s been a lot more efforts at inclusion at DC Comics than there had been during the previous leadership, and queer representation is just one of the places where that’s extremely evident. In the past year, we’ve gotten the first-ever Pride special, we got Crush & Lobo and Aquaman: The Becoming. Both Tim Drake and Jon Kent came out. Superman’s team in Action Comics features multiple queer relationships and characters. A queer Black woman is Queen of Themyscira. That same series textualized the fact that trans women are unequivocally included when the Amazons say “all women.”

The reason that I brought up Marvel is that for the past three years Howard has been working on the X-Men line with Excalibur, X of Swords, and Knights of X, and during that time has had to work completely within subtext as she developed the Betsy Braddock and Rachel Summers relationship. The subtext was extremely loud, but it was still subtext, and that’s all it has been allowed to be. Compare that 24-issue run of Excaliburto the five issues of Catwoman that Howard has written, and the difference is stark, and it becomes very clear that if Howard is given the room to write queer characters as textually queer, she does it extremely well.

Catwoman #43 is another great example of that. What is mostly a fun, breather issue after Howard’s first very intense arc does a lot of work on the personal character development we’ve seen Selina working towards in Howard’s run. Presented as a girl’s road trip (mostly to get out of Gotham while Black Mask is still very heated), guest artist Bengal has a lot of fun making this issue as wacky and antic filled as possible, a tonal shift from the previous arc that gives readers a chance to breathe.

The Harley and Selina relationship shown in Catwoman #43 is very sweet and wholesome, while still being a lot of zany fun, and Bengal’s lighter style was a perfect showcase for it. I especially loved the scene where the two of them cuddled up to go to sleep, with an internal monologue that while it reinforced that yes, both of these characters are bi, at the moment this was not a line Selina wants to step over. It was very cute and sweet, while still allowed to be as textually queer as possible (as was Selina being happy about the prospect of watching “tough gals in short shorts who can take a hit”).

Queer fans have had to live on subtext for so long, that when a comic is allowed to have a character be openly and textually queer, it feels like a breath of clean air after having had our heads underwater for five minutes. Imagine we get to a world where the slivers of representation don’t have to do all that work to make us feel that way, where we don’t have to dig and squint to find it. Howard’s work on Catwoman is pushing us closer to a world where that doesn’t need to be the case, and I’m very thankful for it.

#catwoman #harley quinn #tini howard #dc comics #LGBTQ comics #lgbtq superheroes