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My favorite shot from Questival DC so far! Still going strong!

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I keep coming back to this and just staring!!

• INKtober Day 13

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#demonmask #ballpointpen #fringe

#ballpoint pen #pen artists #illustration #sketch #sketchbook #inspiration

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The best thing I’ve ever seen!!!!!!!!! So proud of you, @robochai! This is my favorite comic style I’ve seen from your amazing hand! 

It’s done! With a cover and everything! :D If you’re going to SPX, I’ll be selling copies. An embarrassing account of the passions of youth, ready for your bookshelf. <3

#minicomics #comics #spx2015 #smallpressexpo #autobio

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me at 5: i can't wait until i'm a teenager i'm gonna have so much fun

me at 15: i can't wait until i'm in my twenties i'm gonna have so much fun

me at 20: i can't wait for the sweet, sweet embrace of death

#i laughed too hard at this

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Wow, best read of the day. Screw publishers for not respecting Nabokov’s wishes! At the same time, though, I’m sure those covers hugely contributed to his fame. Hmm.

the “lolita” covers

here’s a question: if vladimir nabokov’s “lolita” is truly the psychological portrait of a messed up dude and not the girl — let alone a sexualized little girl, as all of the sexualization happens inside humbert humbert’s head — then why do all the covers focus on a girl, and usually a sexy aspect of a girl, usually quite young, and none of them feature a portrait of humbert humbert?

here are nabokov’s original instructions for the book cover:

I want pure colors, melting clouds, accurately drawn details, a sunburst above a receding road with the light reflected in furrows and ruts, after rain. And no girls. … Who would be capable of creating a romantic, delicately drawn, non-Freudian and non-juvenile, picture for LOLITA (a dissolving remoteness, a soft American landscape, a nostalgic highway—that sort of thing)? There is one subject which I am emphatically opposed to: any kind of representation of a little girl.

and yet, the representations of the sexy little girl abound.

i became driven by curiousity. why did this happen? why is this happening?

i am not alone — there’s a book about this, with several essays and artists’ conceptions about the politics and problems of representation surrounding the covers of “lolita.” this new yorker article gives a summary of the book and its ideas, and interviews one of the editors:

Many of the covers guilty of misrepresenting Lolita as a teen seductress feature images from Hollywood movie adaptations of the book— Kubrick’s 1962 version, starring Sue Lyon, and Adrian Lyne’s 1997 one. Are those films primarily to blame for the sexualization of Lolita? As is argued in several of the book’s essays, the promotional image of Sue Lyon in the heart-shaped sunglasses, taken by photographer Bert Stern, is easily the most significant culprit in this regard, much more so than the Kubrick film itself (significantly, neither the sunglasses nor the lollipop ever appears in the film), or the later film by Adrian Lyne. Once this image became associated with “Lolita”—and it’s important to remember that, in the film, Lolita is sixteen years old, not twelve—it really didn’t matter that it was a terribly inaccurate portrait. It became the image of Lolita, and it was ubiquitous. There are other factors that have contributed to the incorrect reading, from the book’s initial publication in Olympia Press’s Traveller’s Series (essentially, a collection of dirty books), to Kubrick’s startlingly unfaithful adaptation. At the heart of all of this seems to be the desire to make the sexual aspect of the novel more palatable.

here’s a couple of kubrick inspired covers:

which very well could have, after tremendous sales, have influenced the following covers:

…straying so far from the intention of nabokov that the phenomenon begins to look more like the symptom of something larger, something sicker.

after a lot of researching covers, it was here, in this sampling of concept covers for the book about the lolita covers, that i found an image that best represents the story to me:

[art by linn olofsdotter]

but why aren’t all the covers like that? even the ones published by “legitimate” publishing companies, with full academic credentials, with no intended connection to the film; surely they must have read nabokov’s instructions for the cover. and yet, look at the top row of lolita covers: all legitimate publishing companies, not prone to smut. and yet.

my conclusion is that the lolita complex existed before “lolita” (and of course it did) — a patriarchal society is essentially operating with the same delusions of humbert humbert. nabokov did not produce the sexy girl covers of lolita, and kubrick had only the smallest hand in it. it was what people desired, requested and bought. the image of the sexy girl sells; intrigues; gets the hands on the books.

as elizabeth janeway said in her review in the new york review of books: “Humbert is every man who is driven by desire, wanting his Lolita so badly that it never occurs to him to consider her as a human being, or as anything but a dream-figment made flesh.”

isn’t that our media as a whole? our culture as a whole?

the whole lot of them/us — seeing the world through humbert-tinted glasses, seeing all others as Other and Object, as solipsistic dream-reality. as i scroll through the “lolita” covers i wonder: where’s the humanity in our humanity?

#books #lolita #nabokov #read of the day

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Reblog because that’s me, I bit my sister, I’m dying of laughter, and if these events DID happen, these would be our exact reactions I’m not even kidding. Dreams are crazy like that! 

I… had a weird dream.

#dreams #comic #funny #alternate universe

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I’m snort-laughing...

Having to transfer a call for the first time…

Well I really hope that actually worked!

#true life #adulting

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WOW my worlds combined

U kno you’ve been playing too much Cards Against Humanity when

#gaming #board games #cards against humanity #pacman

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sporting a wrld1-1 sweatshirt, koopa klutch, and lakitude boat shoes

#weegee #luigi #year of luigi forever #hipster #gaming

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ppl are so interested in aliens but how would they expect to learn about cultures from different planets/solar systems if they can’t even accept different cultures on ya own damn planet from your own damn species

#accurate #culture

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MY SISTER, GUYS. Look at her beautiful art. Seriously, those watercolors! And the story sounds like a beautiful space epic. Oh and Neil Gaiman backed it, no big deal. Just kidding that’s a huge deal, he backed it so YOU SHOULD TOO!!

What’s an Asphodel?

Hey guys!! So I’ve posted a little about Asphodel, but today is writer Alex Kane’s birthday, and by gum, I am going to promote the shit out of it.

Seriously, what is it? Asphodel is a space opera comic set far in the future, but with some homespun stylings: it’s hand-lettered, hand-inked, and hand-painted. 

What’s it about? Earth as we know it? No longer a thing. In an effort to escape years of galactic war and dying colonies, most of humanity has discarded physical form to join minds within an ancient, biomechanical singularity: the Otherworld. Vic has been off fighting that galactic war, and has no clue about any of that. He’s finally trying to make his way home - to an Earth where, chances are, everyone he’s ever loved is long gone.

Sedna is the sole resident of a space habitat right near Pluto, tasked with guarding the gateway to the Otherworld. When her security ships encounter Vic (and very nearly kill him), she finds herself responsible for a man whose entire existence is obsolete. Vic persuades her to leave the only home she’s ever known, and accompany him to Earth - whatever might be there. But the war isn’t done with them. What are you Kickstarting? The first issue of Asphodel! Twenty-two pages in full, glorious color, and a page rate for the artist (Gale Galligan). Rewards include a digital copy of the comic (four dollars!), a limited physical edition ($15!), production books with concept art and process notes, original art, and a ton more cool stuff. Has anything cool happened on the Internet? Totally.  SF Signal The A.V. Club  Geek The News …and Neil Gaiman backed it. Guys, I would love to work on this project. It’s my favorite kind of story: an adventure with heart. As we continue to shuffle into an age where our planet seems smaller and smaller, as we explore further than ever before and our lifespans expand from one century to two to three, we’re going to come up against problems we couldn’t have even imagined. This story asks what it means to be human, against all of that - what it means to live. Also, painting outer space? Super-fun. Thanks for your support!!

#signal boost #sci-fi #scifi #comics #kickstarter #independent artists #self publishing

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These are SO BEAUTIFUL.

Finally finished the set! This took a crazy long time to complete, but I’m happy with the result

#have i reblogged this already? #probably #lotr

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a weeaboo couple breaks up

weeb 1: you and i are no longer daijoubu

weeb 2: hontou?! anata breaking up with watashi desu ka?!

weeb 1: hai, demo we can still be tomodachi

weeb 2: iie. arigatou for nothing, baka...

#oh good lord #i laughed too hard at this

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Makeup is hard, guys!!! 

Double comic Tuesday :D ! No comic this Thursday D: !

#tomboy #societal standards #beauty #comic

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This is so good.

the past couple of nights i’ve stayed up super late just writin music to relax

here’s some gentle tunes to help you and me fall asleep

zzz

#music #sleep #lullaby #relaxing #calm