#in my mind the art reminds me of a lovely fantasy story

[juicingbeetles]

Bungo Stray Dogs as Tarot cards <3

#the art is very pretty #now what would Dazai and Chuuya be? #in my mind the art reminds me of a lovely fantasy story #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs tales of the lost #bsd mayoi

[fobnsfwdoodlesbackup]

New painting!

For this fic! I believe it's by @shark-myths (if this is you hello I need to talk your ear off for 20 years about this fic)

A couple of weeks ago I read the fic I'm A Wing I'm A Prayer on AO3. I don't have a lot of experience reading fanfiction or fantasy, and I was completely floored by the craftsmanship in this story. I'm still (clearly) reeling from how moving it was. Art begets art and I couldn't stop thinking about painting the fic, but especially the graveyard scene.

I think part of what captured me about this scene is that I have often felt like Pete. Sleep deprived, run ragged, working faster than a human should but still never fast enough. Stinging hands and a difficulty communicating.

But where words fail and connection feels full of red tape, sexuality is a path back to feeling human. A language I can speak. Slow and intimate and silent, plucking clothes off one another like swan feathers. Sex as a confession of devotion, sex as a forgiveness to the self for having desires or wanting love. When the world is spinning out and you don't have control over your body, sexuality as a reclaiming of your vessel.

And I love the scene for the symbolism it's layered up in its story telling. Swan song comes to mind as this is the final act of humanity before losing each other. The beauty of the feathers falling among the graves and moonlight and stinging nettle, among the constant reminders of death. The difficulty Pete has with his hands, and the choice to use them anyways. The insistence that when the world doesn't recognize you I do. When you don't recognize yourself I do.

I want to grow in art so badly, and so I've challenged myself to use more references and to push meaningful details when painting. You can watch the process on my reels but it doesn't show how I was jumping between images of graveyards, swans, hands, Pete and Patrick, stinging nettle, bodies non stop. I really feel like it paid off and I'm happy to feel like for the first time I have a painting where the environment is equally show cased and adds depth to the subject. Thank you so much to the writer of the scene not only for telling such a beautiful story, but for making this moment so visually and emotionally full.

Alts:

#painting #pete #patrick #peterick #fic #preh #preh pete #preh Patrick #preh peterick #art #whoever wrote this please know i owe you my life

[2-dsimp]

Hi NightFlurry again!!

Thank you so much for loving my ideas. I'm an avid reader of your blog and love making my own stories; I always check if you have anything interesting to read or any cool art.

While I was reading your genshin yandere otome game, my brain started churning, and I thought to myself, 'If there's a yandere school au, why can't there be a yandere fantasy au as well' I'm so glad you love my work, I was afraid that it wasn't good enough...ToT Anyways, I'm trying to brainstorm some backgrounds for other characters, so far I'm working on Kazuha, Wanderer, Ei, Dainself, Diluc, Kaeya, and Zongli, but feel free to ask/request for any particular character!!

Also, I love it when people comment back on my work. It makes me feel so happy when I read each comment even if it's as lengthy as 4 paragraphs! So please feel free to comment! P.S. I'd also love to hear your opinions 2-dsimp!!

Bye NightFlurry!!

And thank you for blessing me with such good food o(≧v≦)o

I just came back from a jog so my mind is racing with ideas to share and add onto to the fantasy au from my pov! Firstly I’ll just list off the few possible candidates I can see vying for the readers hand in holy or unholy matrimony depending on what ending you get!

Itto the Terrible (He’s a dragon Oni )/Childe the Abyssal knight. but I’ll probably introduce them sometime later so for now I’ll officially announce…

Tyrant Prince! Scaramouche

He’s shunned by the royals and commoners alike. The royals find him to be unfit for succession of the queens throne simply because he was adopted by the shogun and to add insult to injury he had commoners blood running through his veins or so they thought.

As for the reason why the commoners held Tyrant prince! Scaramouche in such low regards was because of his crass and cold behavior towards them. Just imagine the look of fear, embarrassment, and shock the commoners had when he looked at them like they were mere ants, an insignificant existence that wasn’t befitting of his presence nor his attention. And treated them as such.

Although To be fair, Tyrant prince!Scaramouche wasn’t always that way. In his younger days of youth he used to be sociable and warm towards his subjects. But an incident which brought his downfall into the dark abyss of turmoil. That was done by the hands of one who he thought of as a true friend. Caused his heart to grow cruel and cold towards commoners and nobles as a whole.

To make matters worse his relationship with his mother was already strained to the point where only bitterness remained lingering on his tongue whenever he spoke of her.

Not only that he wasn’t the only one the shogun adopted being the meticulous woman she is she rounded up potential orphans that would carry on her legacy. The succession battle was nothing less then pretty since everyone who was an orphan knew the terrible conditions of those who lacked power. And so every son and daughter had the intention to kill anyone getting in there way.

With those factors Tyrant prince! Scaramouche made a promise to himself to never let anyone in as he was all he had left to salvage what remains of himself. Until he met you someone who reminded him so much of himself and yet the only difference was you were strong enough to try and free yourself from what chained you down. Instead of wallowing in self pity, hatred, and helplessness.

However, with your help he knows that the both of you could take over his kingdom via rebellion and claim revenge on the ones who wronged you both. While You deal with your shameless parents who’ve tried to sell you off into marriage with a fat old rich king from afar. Just for a quick buck to prevent the decline in their poor province.

He will execute any and all loose ends so he can truly be set free as his own person. With Tyrant prince! Scaramouche by your side it’s a guarantee that the two of you will govern his country with nobody to stand in the way of y’all’s powerful reign. All you have to do is accept that your his precious tyrant queen if not well he has his ways of convincing you otherwise. As he’s not the type to keep his hands clean…

“Isn’t the scenery beautiful my queen look at what we accomplished, now that we’re in power no one will be able to defy us nor deny us of our existence. Together we’re unstoppable— My dear why’re are you shedding your precious tears? Aren’t you happy that your family is dead, you wanted them alive you say? Haha you’re joking right? Well I suppose you’re not, I offer my utmost condolences my love but they were the ones who almost prevented us from being together. For that I couldn’t just exile them…No, for such a grave sin it ‘twas only natural that death was the only option available for them to truly repent for what they’ve done.

————/———————/———-

I might post doodles of him sometime later XD

#scaramouche x you #scaramouche imagines #yandere scaramouche #scaramouche x reader #scaramouche x y/n #genshin childe #ataraki itto #scaramouche scenarios #scaramouche x player #otome! yandere genshin impact #otome! yandere genshin #yandere ​fantasy addition #tyrant prince scaramouche #scaramouche drabble #genshin drabbles #yandere genshin imagines #yandere genshin x reader #yandere genshin x you #yandere genshin impact

[aotopmha]

I haven't even started the lvl 89 Endwalker MSQ and I'm thinking about how annoying certain opinions around it are.

It's annoying me and I don't want it to distract me in my playthrough, so I'm just going to air it out via this post.

The story really clearly foreshadows what happens. In fact, it directly tells you.

But it is fairly common for people to call twists that are pretty directly foreshadowed still out of nowhere. (And of course, a text can be read in many different ways.)

And I think regardless of any of this, people still don't have to like what happens!

But I've talked about this a bunch regarding other pieces of media, and at this point, nerd criticism is so obnoxious to me because it's often so much more about telling other people how much smarter you are than the writers or the people who like their writing.

I'm not interested in listening you putting yourself on a pedestal and telling me how smart you are.

It's such a boring way to engage with art/writing to me.

In fact, it isn't even about the art, but a shitbag telling me how they would be above any of this kind of "mistakes" in their writing.

This talking point just reminds me of my most smart alec, know-it-all late teens/early twenties moments that have an air of arrogant ignorance to it. Where the criticism absolutely can have its basis, but there might be elements to the narrative decision that have issues in their own right.

It feels like certain storytelling tropes have become "taboos" regardless of how they're executed because of the perception of storytelling "rules"/"basics" being "broken", when in truth those have always been just "guidelines" and even the best-told stories probably have these "flaws" in there somewhere if you look hard enough.

If a major part of the enjoyment of a story for you depends on how many characters die and you obsessively count on your fingers who lived through impossible odds and who didn't, Final Fantasy 14 was probably never a story for you.

I say all of this as someone who at this point has seen The Endwalk probably dozens and dozens of times via playthroughs and cried at it almost every time.

(It's gonna be great for me when I get to it, I can tell!)

Because I find it incredibly meaningful regardless of any issues I might have with it.

To engage that critical mind for a second, if nothing else, I think the story absolutely does need to drop the fake death trope it likes so much, and firmly decide on the characters it kills and that alone would go a long way to reinstill a stronger sense of base tension.

In fact, I do agree that actually killing any of the long-term main characters might need to happen. (And it might need to be staged in a super unexpected way, at that.)

I just do not think Endwalker was the place to do it considering what it is about.

The obvious "hopeful" framing to everyone dying and you alone surviving would be for you to carry on their legacy/work, and the patches then would be finding new connections, but pulling this off could also send the opposite message and come across as amatuerish shock value.

Hey, life is suffering and a path for you to find the good in the bad, so guess what everyone you ever loved dies after everything they've been through!

But there is hope, though!

It looks "ballsy" to kill everyone on the surface, but actually might just thematically fly in the face of the entire story.

All of these characters that have suffered loss and much pain in their own right, yeah, all they get is death in the end!

But there is hope, though!

It's the second point that gets me the most. It would've felt so hateful to me (and it often wished for in such an hateful manner by those who wanted it to happen), especially for like G'raha who was stuck in a tower for a hundred years.

And just a single or few characters dying would feel wrong in a very specific "shock value" way, too.

Why those characters specifically?

That's not what FF14 ever was to me, not even in HW, the section of the story that had the most major deaths.

I think Thancred dying in ShB would'be been perfect, for example.

Main character, paving the way to another character after making peace with his situation with Minfilia.

Would've pretty automatically fixed the general tension issue, too, I think.

But in EW? I think the losses everyone already experienced and the suffering we saw across the entire game from ARR-EW are enough to make the point.

#Final Fantasy XIV #Final Fantasy 14 #FFXIV #FF14 #FF #Final Fantasy #Endwalker #EW

[ladybeug]

was scrolling thru your art tag enjoying your comics when i suddenly discovered you were the one that wrote strangers in the bright lights. having gotten into miraculous only very recently, was tickled to experience a very small identity shenanigan of my own

incredible fic btw; i love it soooooo much. brilliant, hilarious, sweet, poignant. out of curiosity have you read much postww1 modernist stuff? i adored the usage of free indirect discourse for the narration, drunken and in motion and alive, almost reminded me of virginia woolf in a weird way lol. sorry if this is weird

Hello!! I'm about to get long-winded and self indulgent in this reply, fair warning :)

here goes:

Wow!! I don’t know how you found strangers in the bright lights if you got into ladybug in any time frame that can be described as “very recently”, I wrote that in 2018 when I was digesting some personal stuff and in a fantastic ladybug renaissance (of which I have now had several, I think I’ll die in this fandom).

But I’m so glad you somehow did. I only write every couple of years when I get really specific ideas, and the time I spend on it turns into memories of who I was when I wrote it. I feel like that must happen to actual writers too, ones who write often, but I haven’t written “often” since like 2009 and have never asked, so there you go.

But I guess that’s all to say that I am very attached to that story and it’s also one of the only things I’ve written that still feels like it hit the chord I was aiming for. It is so cool that anyone still reads it!!

To actually answer your question: I have never read virginia woolf, and the only modernist stuff I've read was years ago for school classes. I have to admit none of the style was inspired by classics, but instead inspired by the weird disassociation of trying to be alone in a crowd.

I have a final self-indulgent thought, it is a fun fact I realized as I was going down memory lane about this:

I associate ‘strangers in the bright lights’ with a friendship I made that stands out as one of the luckiest and rarest friendships I’ve made – I went to a mountain goats concert alone, and stood up at the front early, and met someone else who had gone to the same mountain goats concert alone and had stood up at the front early. It was one of the fastest and most comfortable connections I’ve made, and we liked each other so much we stayed in touch, even after they moved away. We are still in touch every so often, and as far as I’m concerned in a few years they’re going to publish the best fantasy novel you’ve ever read, so watch out for that.

The fanfiction is in part inspired by that beautiful feeling of meeting someone new that you want to talk to, and they want to talk to you, and a drink or two has propped up your self esteem and you don’t have to worry about who you are tomorrow, just who you are right now. It’s escapism. You feel important, and carried by that feeling, for as long as you are there. Lonely who? Not me. Trapped by past versions of myself, who? Not me.

Anyways the fun fact is - I found out this morning that concert was a year AFTER I posted this fanfiction. I didn't know about that moment of my life as I was writing this. The two are so connected in my mind that this is genuinely surprising, but the concert was in September 2019 and I published the fanfic a year beforehand.

In the words of mr. mountain goat himself: we held on to hope of better days coming, and when we did we were right!

#i am also tickled to be involved in your ML secret identity shenanigan #its absolutely wild to me when people find my ladybeug blog AFTER they find something else i did - bc this blog is my biggest platform by f #r #anyways thank you again for the kind words and the soapbox on which to share some of my thoughts #strangers in the bright lights

[northern-passage]

I assume you get a lot of questions of people asking if you have read/played witcher and if tnp is inspired by it, so instead can I annoy you with a different question?

Have you ever heard of the manga(or the unfinished anime) Claymore?

It's about an order of half mutant women who hunt Yoma(humanoid shapeshifters that prey on humans)

Due to having half yoma blood, their powers are very unstable and they can transform into creatures even more dangerous than the ones they hunt, the monster designs in the later parts of the story get very creative.

Not even asking if tnp draws any inspiration from it, just curious if you have ever heard of it.

ah yes.... my nemesis, the witcher...

i was just talking about this with someone the other day actually, i always find it interesting that people compare it to the witcher but no one ever says anything about grey wardens, which is actually where i got most of my inspiration from. it will probably become more obvious as the story continues... but i suppose the witcher did influence it in some way, just probably not in the way most people think... i could never get into it (sorry everyone i find geralt to be the most boring protagonist alive and could never connect with him) and i barely managed to get through even an hour of both the first and third games combined. tnp is kind of my response to a lot of the genre being quite boring and male-power-fantasy centric... so in that way, the witcher did inspire it, hahaha.

anyways, as for your question, i have not heard of it, actually! i can't say i'm a big fan of the human character designs (where are their organs and how is she lifting that sword with those twig arms) but to be fair i feel that way about a lot of animation in general when it comes to female designs. that being said i actually think the art style is pulled off better in the manga than in the anime, and i like the look of a lot of the monster designs. i really like whatever the hell is going on here:

some of the designs remind me of H.R. Giger's work which i always love to see.

i don't really watch a lot of anime or read any manga, unfortunately. it's probably obvious that i have seen and read Fullmetal Alchemist, the way the hunter's transmuational alchemy works is directly inspired by it, but other than that i've only watched Cowboy Bebop and Wolf's Rain, which i both only saw when i was a teen.

thanks for telling me about this, i'll keep it in mind if i ever feel the itch to read some more manga. if nothing else i really liked checking out the art and the monsters :-)

#also to be clear i dont necessarily mind the witcher comparisons it would be stupid for me to act like there isnt similarities #but i do hate when ppl say it's 'based on' the witcher. which i've gotten a few times lmfao #like i said i think the grey warden inspiration will get more obvious as the game progresses #i truly do not know how witchers work but the connection to monsters through the vel #always was something that worked similarly to how the grey wardens can sense darkspawn #and the rot.... well. i shant say it #ask #anonymous

[pixelgrotto]

Dogmatic Dungeon Master

The last four weeks of my gaming time were consumed by Dragon's Dogma 2, an extravagana that's something like experiencing a wild D&D campaign that keeps going off the rails over and over again. (I'm pretty sure Capcom would be pleased with this comparison, seeing that they released promo art heavily based on AD&D's classic Red Box.)

DD2 has been a delight to devote 100+ hours to, and I find myself wishing I'd bought its predecessor ages ago, especially during those Steam sales where it sold for ridiculous prices like three or four dollars. I never did because I thought it looked sort of generic. Joke's on me! To be fair, this second one could also be described as looking generic upon first glance (though Capcom's RE Engine is certainly proving that it's got legs since Resident Evil 7), but I feel like that was an intentional decision. The goal here was clearly to create something with the trappings of the iconic Western fantasy setting (plus the inclusion of cat people, AKA Beastren) to draw players in and get 'em comfortable before presenting them with one of the most wacky open worlds in recent memory.

How's it wacky? Well, DD2 has a billion different systems under the hood, all colliding with each other. There are the systems that dictate the schedules of NPCs, who you can find wandering roads and getting into fights with enemies. Said enemies have their own systems, and on more than one occasion when I was fighting one of the game's huge bosses (drakes, golems, minotaurs, ogres and the like), that fight spilled over into the territory of another boss, who proceeded to attack both me and the first boss. A kaiju rumble ensued as the systems of both bosses collided with each other, and sometimes this rumble veered too close to the borders of a settlement, attracting the attention of pawns, which are basically the sidekicks assisting the game's main character, the Arisen.

If you're playing online, pawns created by other players can randomly appear in your game, and there were many special moments when I ran into a bizarrely off-proportion thief with the incredible name "Frog Nasty" and a half-naked mage dubbed "Lucy Liu." On one such occasion, Frog and Lucy joined my ever-evolving kaiju battle, and the incredible chaos continued until a griffin just happened to swoop down from the sky to snatch me up in its arms. As I went in the sky, I proceeded to climb atop that griffin’s head and smacked it silly with my mace until it dropped me into the ocean where I was devoured by Brine, AKA DD2’s in-world explanation for why you can’t just swim everywhere.

My description of this incident is no exaggeration. Unscripted mischief of this ilk happens every five minutes in this game, and it's the result of all those systems smashing into each other with delicious gusto. That said, not all of the systems work as well as they should, and some are half-baked. For instance, there's a romance/affinity system that's a carryover from the first Dragon's Dogma. The affinity levels of characters are never truly explained, and you can unexpectedly cause random people to fall in love with you by giving them the right gifts again and again, or completing their sidequests at the expense of others. This means that the Vernworth tavern keeper, who plays no important role at all, can suddenly show up in the final cutscene as your true heart's desire, in the clutches of your mortal enemy. I guess even when DD2's systems are half-baked, they still yield entertaining results.

As someone who runs a lot of tabletop RPGs (but often doesn't get the chance to act as a player), Dragon's Dogma 2 truly reminds me of a dedicated Game Master who doesn't mind when players test limits. This is a GM who clearly loves madcap battles full of unexpected twists that can take up an entire gaming session, as well as expansive side quests with more flavor than anything else in the campaign. The main story is not said Game Master's preference, which serves as a handy explanation on why you can find many Reddit threads decrying DD2's plot as kinda blah.

I get these complaints. The game's main missions are not terribly long - 40 or so hours, probably - and the clear meat of DD2 is in the exploration and combat. This isn't to say that the story's total rubbish, as it does have poignant moments in its cyclical, meta take on an Arisen who rises up every couple of years to complete a destiny of fighting the titular dragon. There's a secret endgame that also delves even farther into the tabletop RPG comparisons, giving you the chance to "defy the Dungeon Master," if you will, sending the campaign even further off the rails as you potentially see what happens when the GM just has no shits left to give and decides to turn the world into an apocalypse.

All of this makes DD2 probably one of my favorite open world games. I've been thinking a lot about what sort of open worlds attract me, since I'm a firm believer that more often than not, video games don't need to go all massive. (Give me a small-scale, well-developed area over a massive map filled with junky quest markers.) That said, I've noticed that I like open worlds that buck the Ubisoft-style trend of having busywork for really good writing (The Witcher 3 comes to mind) or simply invest in their mechanics to the point that everything fills up like a wonderful sandbox, with lots of bits and bobs to play with (that would be The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild).

Dragon's Dogma 2 is definitely more on the kooky sandbox side of things, with its oversized monsters at every turn and wonderous pawn shenanigans. The true appeal of this game, however, lies in the little stories that you create with your main pawn and other pawns along the trail. There's something special in the relationship you forge with these AI allies, who aren't real in the slightest, but bring forth that feeling of being a Game Master yourself as you corral them into taking down a drake. I was downright emotional when I said farewell to my main pawn at the end of the game (okay, the fact that I designed her to look like my wife probably helped, but still).

So here's to Dragon's Dogma 2, a wild piece of entertainment commandeered by a Game Master who clearly loves the journey more than the destination. Here's to those moments when you and your loyal pawns are facing down an ogre in its lair, or just barely survive a golem's laser beam after a series of hobgoblins stunlocked you into low health over and over again. Here's to sitting by a campfire, enjoying an unpredictable open world, and realizing the grand truth that comes with all tabletop RPGs - that the unscripted moments truly are the best part of the adventure.

#pixel grotto #favorites #dragon’s dogma 2

[jarimaa]

Jujutsu Kaisen Fandom...sigh.

I really wanted to write something about it since jjk season 2 is around the corner, I am excited but at the same time I dread to think how horrible the fandom is going to be. I know it in my bones that bad takes and blatant misinterpretation are gonna flood in the timelines of many people and ruin their experience of this series.

Manga is one of my favorite sources of entertainment and some of the mangas are much better than many celebrated literatures work. Similarly, I love headcanons, but my definition of headcanon is a little different, for me headcanon is supposed to expand on given information regarding a character and not entirely change the motivations and actions of character to the point where it’s an OC with looks of the character. I am not forcing anyone to agree with me, I simply stating my personal way to read a material, But I disagree with characterization of many characters in the fandom. 

I am more of a nerdy reader than a causal one, to me both are fine but then comes selective readers they are the people that have the most horrible takes. They are either are only following the story for ships, power tier, just one or two characters and disregard the rest of story to the point where they miss the importance of narrative, themes, philosophies and motivations in story etc.

I love ships and power system, likewise I love shipping and power scaling, but to a certain extent, i.e., until it doesn’t change or completely disregard canon material. I, as a person, have too much respect for art (any form of art, really) to do that. I used to think it's only the teens/ young ones that have bad interpretations, but I have also stopped believing that all adults have good reading comprehension or narrative understanding of stories. Some teens/young adults have better understanding of story than many adults (‘some’ being the key word) me and my friends completely laugh at the interpretation of certain literature pieces by our professors (most of the time they are junior professors, older professors are quite better in their expression) in the college. But some of them either look too deep or too less in the material without removing personal biases. BTW any person giving their own views is biased because it's THEIR point of view and there is nothing wrong with it. But forcing others to believe that is idiotic.

Jujutsu Kaisen fandom is one of those appalling places. I don’t interact with fandom much, more of a silence reader (I am thinking of writing more to improve my critical thinking and answer writing but let’s see). My head hurts sometimes after looking at the blatant misinterpretation of many characters on tumblr and twitter (I don’t care about reddit as much, there are good memes and joke posts which I enjoy but rarely anything else which is worthwhile, some do pop up but its still rare). Deep characters with beautiful writing like Gojou, Toji, Getou, Mahito, Megumi, Yuuta and Maki etc. are reduced to either ships or “who is stronger”, “X stomps Y” debate. It gets worse when someone who doesn't want to agree with them gets attacked.

I genuinely don’t care about your personal way to enjoy a story, but I implore people to separate their own fantasy/fanon/headcanon from the canon material. If you can’t do that then at least don’t force it on others or attack others for it. It really shows someone's maturity when they says that...they love this headcanon/fanon or theory but at the same they acknowledge that its not canon...they keep this distinction in their minds and don’t shove it down people’s throat, it is the way they personally enjoy the character or story not the 'absolute' way it should be consumed. Its really…not that hard. Just remind yourself that they are somebody’s imagination and not real, you don’t have to fight for their rights, at most hope for a good narrative justification of their roles and the ending.

#jjk #jjk fandom #jjk headcanons #Jujutsu Kaisen #gojo satoru #geto suguru #megumi fushiguro #maki zenin #personal rant #i just want a good reading experience with others #but bad takes and toxic behavior just spoils it #yuji itadori #yuta okkotsu #mahito #damn i am really bad at tagging #jjk meta

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

Black Sails star Luke Arnold headlines Stan’s excellent new series, Scrublands, based on Chris Hammer’s novel

For Black Sails star LukeArnold, being front and centre in the small screen adaption of Chris Hammer's bestselling Australian novel, Scrublands, is a collision of his own two worlds.

The Aussie actor, a graduate of WAAPA (Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts) who shot to fame playing Michael Hutchence in the 2014 INXS mini-series Never Tear Us Apart, is also the author of three fantasy novels.

His Fetch Phillips series, published around the world in multiple languages, means he now balances taking acting gigs with devoting time to his burgeoning career as a writer.

And this gig, based on Hammer's compelling crime story, came at the perfect time.

"Doing a great mystery, where I get to be the journalist on the trail, I think this was something I was really hungry for about it, and then doing (the SBS series) True Colours," he tells STM.

True Colors saw Arnold step into the role of a detective, investigating an accident in a remote Indigenous community — Scrublands sees him playing an investigative journalist, Martin Scarsden, whose career has been derailed.

Scarsden is dispatched to Riversend, a small country town, to do a "puff piece" on how the residents are faring a year on from their village priest taking out a gun and shooting dead five of his congregation after Sunday Mass.

Jay Ryan plays the murderous priest Byron Swift, and he's terrific in the role — acclaimed actress Bella Heathcote steps in to play another character central to the story and she's equally compelling.

This series is Aussie Noir at its finest — perhaps unsurprisingly when it has Wolf Creek's Greg McLean as its director — and it paints a dark tale, beautifully realised.

And as Arnold's character pieces together what actually happened that fateful day, it only gets more compelling.

Arnold admits he was equally taken when reading the scripts, written by writer and producer Felicity Packard.

"I hadn't read the book, but I was definitely aware of it... wo when the opportunity came up, I started reading it and I really loved (it)," he explains.

"At the same time, I was reading the scripts, and actually, (they) are quite different from the book."

"The book is so beautifully in Martin's head, and like a lot of great novels, it is very internal. I think Felicity, and other writers on this show, have been really smart and really savvy in the way they have taken of the book, and the characters, and made it something that really pops on screen."

Arnold believes that fans of the novel will also find plenty to connect with in its screen adaptation, "but also, you are still in for a bunch of surprises, because it does go it own way," he admits.

Though the novel was set in NSW's Riverina area, this production was filmed in the Victorian country towns of Castlemaine and Maldon, which doubles for Riversend in the series.

Arnold says he relished his time shooting there with the show's cast and crew, providing, as it did a welcome change from his solidarity life as an author.

"The beauty of acting is that you generally work for big chunks and then have some big time in between, which is really great for lots of things, but as author it's fantastic," he says.

"I think I enjoy acting more, but writing is working out really well, because I now have this other outlet which is all me and my ideas, and I get to wake up every day and go to work. It feels really freeing and exciting to be able to have my own stuff. But after a few months of being alone in a room with my own mind, it's such a joy to do this other thing."

As long as it's possible, Arnold, who has several projects coming up, says he hopes to be able to continue to straddle these two worlds.

"I get excited about getting to write more stuff, and if opportunities come up as an actor, it can be tempting to do more of then. I have got to keep reminding myself that I have this other career that is on the way up as well", he explains.

"I feel really lucky that this other one is going really well, and I get to bounce back and forth."

Source: The West Australian (paywall)

big thanks to friend from Sunder City server for help with the screenshot!

#black sails #luke arnold #john silver #scrublands #interview #the west australian

[radioactive-earthshine]

While I'm talking about Klarion and his incarnations I just want to gush very messily about a little known else world's story that I feel very strongly about being animated that has one of my favorite versions of him.

It's title is Zatanna and the House of Secrets and is stars Zatanna, of course, Zatara, Pocus, and Klarion written by Matthew Cody and drawn by Yoshi Yoshitani.

The following isn't any sort of meta or analysis really this is just me squawking about this book and some favorite scenes while trying to make the core point make sense to hopefully convince you to read it.

The art alone is breathtaking.

It's an absolutely fun and delightful origin story for Zatanna full of whimsy, soft moments, some peril and of course great character interactions. If you're a fan of 80s/90s media you might get a lot of vibes from some popular fantasy movies of the time visually and thematically.

In this version we also get to see Klarion's mother (unnamed in this) as the primary antagonist and I am in love with her character and her design. In this version she is the Witch Queen with Klarion as her direct heir. Naturally, Klarion wants nothing to do with it.

Even so, when Klarion first shows up he doesn't make the best impression on Zatanna but we find out quickly that he's more or less pretty unwilling in his mother's ploys.

(Also I really want to see Zatanna smacking Klarion animated).

The story is also about Zatanna's growth and coming into her powers while uncovering secrets tied to her father and mother.

They each share the braincell here.

Though the be fair Klarion is not as powerful here as he is in other versions of himself so he relies on Zatanna multiple times to save the day.

Pocus is such a delight in this, he reminds me a lot of Binx in Hocus Pocus.

These panels... You can feel the love. I wish my cat would let me hold her like that.

Klarion throughout this adventure with Zatanna really does grow to care about her...

It has soft and cute moments from two parallel people, without giving too much away Zatanna feels alienated by being kept secrets about herself, and her dead mother that Zatara was complicit in. He had his reasons, but being a 13 year old girl those reasons do not feel valid for her right now.

Klarion meanwhile was a child under a stern and strict ruler who does not radiate warmth or love and he is told what to do, and what to be, so much that he does not feel like he has control over his own life. All while maintaining that Klarion whimsy in that he just wants to have F U N.

Klarion begs Zatanna to run away with him and forget about her father who had lied to her all her life, so they both can be free and revel in that childish fantasy of being unbridled by rules like Peter Pan's Lost Boys.

Another scene I desperately want animated.

Sadly, Klarion made a misjudgment and fell back on some habits that the characters is known to do and he loses Zatanna's trust for a while.

Even though they have a sudden bridge between them Klarion still has no desire to really help his mother, and by the end of the book he's not afraid to snipe at her and defy her openly. He's made up his mind about what he wants.

Witch Queen turned both Teekl and Pocus into stuffed effigies and Klarion guards them both, angrily. If you know anything about Klarion there is one thing you do not do... fuck with his cat.

Eventually, Zatanna comes to learn some more truths and fully embraces her magic, which gives her an edge over Witch Queen.

The hopeful look Klarion gives his mother kills me. Naturally, Witch Queen doesn't really answer her. She's hot but there's no warmth in her heart.

And so Zatanna saves the day, Witch Queen is defeated, the house is put back in its natural state and her father, Pocus and Teekl are all restored.

The only thing that wasn't quite fully restored was her budding friendship with Klarion.

It doesn't end entirely on bad terms between them, but it is a note of bittersweet.

I really love this story, it captures fun whimsy while showing a realistic story about a 13 year old extraordinary girl dealing with unnatural problems, and normal mundane problems as well.

Klarion here is very divergent from almost all of his incarnations but he is still recognizable as himself being that fun and free person unbridled by rules. Also his design here is delightful as he has more beast-like traits with fangs and pointed ears. I wonder sometimes if this Klarion will ever get antlers.

10/10 recommend and I really, really feel strongly that this story should be adapted into animation.

#zatanna zatara #zatanna and the house of secrets #klarion bleak #klarion the witchboy #teekl #sorry if this is not really comprehensible i just wanted to hammer this out before getting back to writing

[the-colourful-witch]

i just found ur account and wanted to let u know that i’m absolutely obsessed!!

i love the way u somehow combine this childlike wonder and nostalgia i connect with discovering the hp-verse so many years ago with the modern versions and stories i have in my head now. just beautiful.

You know, this wonderful message made me stop for a minute. I was just sitting casually at the breakfast table, eating my oatmeal, reading my little book, sipping my coffee, listening to my Dad mutter about taxes, and my mother giggling over cat videos... Every regular Friday morning, right? ... Where was I? Oh right, I read your message! And I felt my heart swell <3 Thank you. It's so lovely to hear that you experience my art like this. I do these drawings mostly for fun because I've always loved drawing HP characters and putting my own spin on the world. And since creating this blog, that has changed so much. For the better, don't worry :) I get messages like this and I'm reminded of how much fun it is to share art. I think I read all the books for the first time when I was nine...? Nine or ten, I think. It changed my life! It sparked a lifetime of reading pleasure and an obsession with fantasy and fairytales. Then, I was already drawing the characters and imagining how it would feel to live in the Wizarding World. And it's just like you said, creating this art now feels nostalgic, yet new at the same time. We're all adults now (most of us, I think, I don't actually know) but we can't let childlike wonder ever go away. It is what keeps us creative and opens our minds and hearts to new and exciting experiences. That is what I want people to feel when they experience my art. The little spark of magic that never really went away. My art is for the eleven-year-old versions of ourselves that never got their Hogwarts letter.

#harrypotteruniverse #wizardingworld #hp #hpuniverse #hpfandom #character illustration #characterdesign #wizardingworldillustration

[artharakka]

Hello

I habe just recently come across your page. My condolences for Minni.

But Holy Shit, your art style is so cool. Your whole page is freaking fantastic beautiful. Sorry for just putting random words together. I love the artstyle so much. To be honest i am flabbergasted. I hope one day I can draw in a similar artstyle too, but i don’t think anything can come near to the talent you have.

Like fr i saw your drawings and was shocked. May i ask are some of your paintings inspired by mythology? Because they remind me of trolls and a book i had when i was a child from Jan Lööf, it was about trolls.

Sending lots if luvs and hugs from little nowhere in europe. 💕💕💕💕💕💕

Hi 🧡 Last night I dreamed of Minni, she was sleeping at my feet and she was warm and her side moved with her breathing, but I knew she wasn't really there and it didn't feel wrong, so in time, I think it will be alright 🧡

And thank you! I hope you don't mind me answering this publicly as this became a longer rambling about creating and inspirations! Rest under the cut:

Often I think I'm still kind of searching for an art style that feels most comfortable to me, but thank you for liking where I'm now 💕 But don't put yourself down! It has taken me a lot of trials and errors to be where I am. And I could've saved a lot of time if I had committed myself to learning the fundamentals first, taken more art classes, etc, but hey, sometimes art isn't about perfercting a style but finding something you are so passionate about you cannot stop creating and you end up learning in the process (for me it is stories, I find it very hard to sit down and do a "random" art piece with no background story for the characters in it). And creativity comes in many forms! With a quick glance, writing comes more naturally to you than to me (even though I would like to do that more).

Your ask made me think what exactly has inspired my art. I haven't illustrated mythological scenes or people (only that I can think of kind of referencing myths is the "Mirror" swordtember drawing I titled as "Perseus' End" on my Inprnt), but I'd say mythology definitely is there in sources of inspiration. Not some one and only, but multiple mythologies I think (mostly European, as sources to those are more accessible to me because, well, eurocentrism and language barriers, but also geographical closeness). Mediterranean mythologies, first as a kid through (Hellenistic) Greek, now more nuanced (lately obsessed with Minoan art and clothing, many thanks to Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! podcast). Playing (= @artist-rat playing for me because I was scared) Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice mabe me dig more deeply into Celtic and Norse mythologies. I'm also inspired by Finnish mythology (and I started to write more in depth about it's nuances, but it got long so it probably needs its own post at some point)

In short, much of it's lost or unclear whether it was appropriated from Karelians (or Sámi) people. But after the sources of mythological events and characters are uclear, what is left that inspires me is this kind of animistic belief system and reverence of nature. That if you sing a spell to the trees or rocks, you can shape what is around you. That a everyone has their own soul bird that brings your soul to you when you are born and carries away when you die. And while I also enjoy high fantasy and epics, what also inspires me is finding beauty in ordinary, in everything. Especially in nature. While I get and appreciate the beauty of mountains and sea and steep cliffs, I try and can find beauty near me. Ordinary pines, birds that I see while I walk to supermarket, lake's small waves against small stones. And I also find beauty and inspiration how in many small things near you, one can find marks of something more. Dinosaurs never disappeared nor did their reign ever end: birds are still here and much more numerous than humans. The small exposed piece of rock is part of Earth's foundation, it's grooves and scrapes were left by tonnes ice that passed it ten thousand years ago. The esker made of gravel and sand is not as high as a mountain, but it is still the highest in the entire world and for thousands of years people before you have climbed on top of it and seen the lakes and forests around it.

Mythologies and cultures also inspire me in a way that I love to invent them. Mostly by looking at what has already been. Imagine what all ways people have had or could have to promise to live together, to enter to adulthood. And I don't think of myself as particularly morbid person, but when I have a new story or ttrpg world, I love to think how do people there bury their loved ones. Where do they think they go and what do they need for that journey? Can they ever come back?

I was also about to list some artists that inspire me, but this is already so long that I think that will also be its own post. But I have a side blog @harakkae and there tags "art" and "inspiration" where I have collected some art and artists that inspire me!

Sorry again for long answer, I swear I cut out a lot of my ramblings! And thank you for loving my art! Hugs and best wishes to you as well and based on the fact that you had a book from Jan Lööf, I think I might be from as or even more nowhere in Europe as you 🧡🐦

#it's near midnight and there probably are typos but man do I love explaining #and enjoy the little lynx 🐆

[breezy-cheezy]

Who are Rook and Trey (if you don’t mind my asking)? (Love your art btw)

*Takes a DEEP breath* How much time you got- /half joking

Aight so. Rook Hunt and Trey Clover are two characters from a phone game I've been into recently, Twisted Wonderland. Yes. The. The Disney one. Written and Drawn by Yana Toboso (the artist/writer behind Black Butler. No I'm not kidding.) HEAR ME OUT kjhsdjkgdf

It's one of those gacha/visual novel-like games that gets marketed as like a dating sim, but has some of the most. Un-romantic settings/characters I've EVER seen. As an aro/ace, I applaud this lmao. Also amazing character and story writing like what the heck.

Very....boys will be boys energy but not the mean way, more of a “y’all are so stupid and ridiculous” in a fond way??

Actual answer under read more because I'm insane:

So every character is like. They aren't the Disney characters themselves but more like BASED on them? Sometimes several. I'm making a powerpoint on this to connect all the dots, here's Trey's lmao

Heartslabyul house! Based on: Mad Hatter, 3 of Clubs, King of Hearts, etc. Generally chill. You think he's the normal one, then he turns around and gives you an hour lecture on how to brush your teeth properly. Ok mom.

He also reminds me along of Ignis from Final Fantasy 15. He's. That type. But also not?? Still instant attachment that way LOL

Thing is he's VERY devoted to his childhood friend/Dorm leader, Riddle. But he will never admit this, not even to himself. (due to Trauma and also being totally completely normal. Uh-huh.)

SO IN WE BRING....ROOK HUNT (who is already on that slide HAHA)

Different house (it's a school setting, like Hogwarts but more Themed Houses based around. Different Disney villains) and SO. How do you explain Rook. Well he's based off the Huntsman from Snow White, mainly.

Gives these vibes. Incoming. Smiley. Will give affection. Somewhat of a threat.

Theater kid set loose. French. Loves beauty in all its forms. Drama, sparkles, has SO much love (platonic, I must preface, every time I use that, I mean in an unromantic manner) to give and is VERY vocal about it. Compliments you constantly and finds uplifting things to say even when you did horribly on something. You fell on your face? He will tell you you fell with magnificence or something idk he's just LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME, he means EVERY WORD TOO-

This dude will not lie. His eyes are too good, he is too perceptive. Oh also he hunts some students for sport, there's that little detail (HE NEVER HURTS ANYONE as far as I know he just. Watches. Love this lil weirdo. Some of his lines are "let's play tag!" and I'm like oh NO LMAO) so like I laugh at him but he's also MILDLY TERRIFYING AND CAPABLE LIKE DUDE-

Anyway, TREY you meet early since he's in the first house you deal with, Heartslabyul. But my first exposure to ROOK was through Trey's Lab Card story, which is honestly a fun time on its own. They are science club buddies!!

So right off the bat you have a very :D :D vs calm =w=;;; dynamic, which I love. But then we have....Trey, who denies how much he cares for people, for Riddle. Who shows care through his actions, baking, Due to Reasons, words of affirmation might murder him on the spot. And then we have Rook, who is a font of flowery warm appreciative words who loves and loves loudly, watching this like 👀 I see you. (incoming shots of Halloween Event part 2)

The guy calls him Chevalier des Roses to his face. Constantly. Rook has little nicknames for alot of people (most dorm leaders he calls "King of Roses" (Riddle), "King of Lions" (Leona) etc.) but he calls Trey a Knight. Of Roses. He's calling Trey Riddle's Knight. And it's very cute.

(Halloween event tossed them together and it was WONDERFUL)

But yeah Trey has his own reasons for shying away from the title. He's a baker's boy, he has no sword or armor or anything, also it's embarrassing as heck-

But Rook still sees how he treats people. He calls a knight for what it is. Rook himself ADORES his dorm Leader, Vil, and sees Trey trying to hide this same devotion and just goes "you are like me!!!" Trey: oh please no I could never-

Also they're SUCH. PARENTS.

It's just. A really good dynamic I'd LOVE to see more of, y'know? An understanding, somehow being understood by someone more than you know yourself. Rook is also weird as HECK sometimes (what do you mean you can see how Leona is yawning ALL THE WAY ACCROSS THE FEILD) and Trey nearby is. His friend. He's just like "I'm so sorry he's just like this" and it's VERY funny akjshdjksdhfs he may have to hold Rook back from blowing up the labs again, dude gets carried away.

I do love this very CUTE fan art here.

Twisted Wonderland has some lovely character dynamics. Also no one is "normal", but Rook is just another level of w h a t.

It feels like alot of interactions were just "hm spin a wheel, see who we get, slap them together" and it WORKS. SOMEHOW. Platonic Rook Trey is just one I've become extremely fond of and it's a rarer one....

You probably weren't expecting that much but it was a fun thing to answer. And THANK YOU About the art!! I wish to post more!! After school ends....soon.

#breezy babbles #anonymous #breezy replies #twisted wonderland #twst #analysis #of a sort..... #there are more details I could go into but that's MORE spoilers #rook hunt #trey clover #brotp #idk how to tag these except.....babbies #anyway trey you meet quick he's in the first book/arc #Rook is in pomefiore he's in the 5th book..... #even tho all characters can be seen in personal character stories #and chats and events etc #even the lab one we have rook trey and jade from Octavinelle (book 3) #so literally anything goes #makes hunting (haha) for content rough tho :/ #esp with fandom being....ship saturated in its natural state #also school is beating me up so there's That #final tomorrow I'm procrastinating soooo hard #oops #thanks for asking about the hyper fixation anon #I went for it......ehe #twst halloween #Rook has more character bases but those are....spoiler locked #enjoy the brain rot y'all who are curious I guess #back to animation hell I gooooo

[dana-chan-the-control-brain]

Saw you were thinking of doing more point and click adventure games and I have a few suggestions! 

Primordia :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YvWQi_5fsw

Honestly I think it would be right up your alley.

On the more horror side

Excavation of Hob’s barrow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-1C_9RQJb8

Kathy Rain : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aW1YcrEc0M

A little more on the fantasy fanciful side

Beyond The Edge of Owlsgard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXeHb_dN9qo

Wytchwood : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufvmbqHVbLY

Though that one is a little closer to a crafting game.

Enjoy :D

--------

THANK YOU!

Sorry it took me awhile to read this submission. I’ve been adding a lot of Adventure Games to my “to play” list lately. Mainly cause of PushingupRoses and their new Podcast “Save Your Game” so I recommend giving that a listen if you’re up for any game recommendations, Modern or Old.

So I’ll go down this line and look at the trailers to see if I’m interested.

Primordia:

OH GOD! Primordia’s art style reminds me of like Dark Seed. Which is appropriate cus I think Geiger did the artwork on that game. (darkseed not this) but it also reminds me of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with it’s art direction. I might just check it out for the Bug, Goth Steampunk style alone.

Excavation of Hob’s barrow:

I’ve heard of this game! It was actually brought up and Discussed in the “Save your Game” podcast and I looked up the art and thought about giving this one the old college try. I love me a good mystery and gothic horror intrigue. Definitely one to keep in mind.

Kathy Rain:

I actually did play this one! Well, I played it once, and it was the original, not the Directors Cut. I don’t know what changes the Directors Cut made, and since I only played it once, I don’t really remember a lot of the puzzles or how it concluded. But I loved the atmosphere and I just love that the 90s was so long ago, that modern Adventure Games can like use it for a retro setting now. I want to see a lot more games take place in the 90s. Like the 80s had their turn, and I love scifi and the future, but we just need more games set in that weird era of leaking out of the 80s and dissolving to grunge. I think a small town community in the 90s is a good setting for a game in general. I should give Kathy Rain another go, it’s still in my steam library untouched.

Beyond the Edge of Owlsguard:

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!  My little inner furry absolutely LOVES this. Like the juxtaposition of a somewhat realistic Pixel art background, blended in with the super cartoony look of Anthro animals just has me instantly hooked on the artstyle alone. Like it looks like one of the more sillier games in tone of Monkey Island or Sam and Max hit the Road and that is fine by me! The graphic interface is very old school and it seems to be very self aware of the adventure game genre. I don’t doubt things will get dark and serious by how they introduced the main threat but... Like I will probably just pick this up for the art style alone!

Wytchwood:

Ah this looks really interesting. It really reminds me of Cult of the lamb weirdly. With crafting and dungeon elements. I might give it a go, but it doesn’t capture my interest immediately like some others.

Also, I’ll drop a recommendation I’ve heard of: 

Perfect Tides

The year is 2000. You’re a teenager. You only have online friends and you’re trying to navigate puberty and the world of sex. Some people might not like that kind of thing, especially if they cringe hard at second hand embarrassment, but from what I’ve heard, this whole thing is like a mix of “Night in the Woods” and “Watamote” more the later then the former. I heard that this game isn’t afraid to make it’s main character utterly unlikeable and it’s a real coming of age story. And like, what it’s like to be alone as a teenager only having online friends to seek companionship with. I honestly can’t wait to try out this one. It looks like an existential time and a half.

#Adventure Games #Point and Click adventure games #Game recommendations #danachan's rants #submissions

[gargoyle-doyle]

notes & thoughts i had when i was reading this book ;-3 (its kinda disjointed and doesn't read well, there were just things scrawled when reading. idk i might write it up properly one day xx).

-Clinically obsessed with Neil Gaiman's 1994 'The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch' and yes i am incredibly biased, and yes it is because i'm living away from pompey right now, and i miss my ghost adventures, and fratton rd subway.

-Its just such a nostalgic, and fun read. Mckeans art is so vivid, its like something walked straight out of my mind and onto the page, its really a graphic novel that properly exploits the medium and captivates on every page.

-As someone who has personally beefed with the descendants of these swans, i can tell you for a fact that this still stands true - they will break your arm, and not only that, they will peck into ur stomach and pluck out ur intestines. Apart from one swan who has arthritis, and is fed medicine in the evenings by an unnamed local, he is probably too busy eating his medicines.

-Reading all these passages written in 1994, almost exactly 30 years ago, set even further back into the late sixties, and seeing such relatable anecdotes. it's hopeful. Pompey stays Pompey forever.

And then you're hit with bits like this:

-And I'm reminded of the bridge centre bookshop losing the war against the council, the privatising of the secret garden, commercial road - the ghost town. And subway, and rowans, and London rd dying. Moorhouse becoming a newsagents, becoming a house.

-And then even before me, (mandatory obelisk mention), tricorn, charlotte st. The shadows of the past. What becomes of the time capsule in the bridge, when there is no bridge? But then in the same way theres development. Gunwharf, The spinnaker, The Mary Rose Museum.

-But it's all the superficial stuff - the tourist attractions. And it's all the heart and soul that get left to rot.

-I love this graphic novel because it's alive. and its mean. an affair, a pregnancy, forced abortion by beating a woman with planks of wood, disguised in cloudy memories and that slight childhood hope to mask it. to retell it again and again until the story turns out different this time.

-And there's this house, and its my childhood home. its the home of everyone i've ever befriended, and ever went to school with. And I'm reminded of when i used to see Punch and Judy shows over in St James' Dog park for picnic on the green.

-And one year, after the show, after the ice lollies, and after the raffle, my friend and i walked home, past all the shops, and at the end of my street was a great plume of smoke, and crinkle chip was burning down. We stood across the road and watched it burn.

Crinkle chip survived - but not as crinkle chip. It changed, it became Crispy Cod. But the foods the same. the important stuff. idk, i hate everything closing, its gone, and likely never coming back. But i still care, and i think that's the important part. that it mattered to me once upon a time (second mandatory obelisk mention in brackets so i don't waffle on about the obelisk).

-the story of punch and judy is told and retold by so many. as life here is lived by so many, but in many ways the same life. with many of the same characters and set pieces.

-the tale really articulates the frustration, the whimsy, the worry, and the awareness of childhood. living in a dream-like world, only in that none of your questions ever get answered. fantasy from boredom, fear, and confusion. the world is new, its your first time here and everyone just expects you to know whats real and whats not. That feeling of being looked over, of raising yourself because adults lie, cry, and run away from questions.

-This lamppost is real - so are the lights. i know exactly where this is and what they look like at every time of day.

-I love puppets, i love making them, buying them, studying them. This book reads like a love letter. But one written to a love never indulged. a love letter written and then kept in a box in the attic. The book feels like everything we want to say but don't. in the real world there's the story following the boy and his grandfather, and in the magical, theres the denial to let the self wear the puppet. nothing ever comes to fruition. nothing stays long enough to have the time to tell it how you felt, to express the grief. at the end theres a moment where the narrator just might wear mr punch. but theres not enough time to rationalise, to explain. its not the same mr punch anyway.

-its a scene that reminded me that sometimes we never get to do the things we desire because its too late. like trick-or-treating. if you dont do it as a kid you never will. and it sucks. and we dont get to go back.

-i should've bought all those Anne Rice books from the Bridge when i had the chance. but its gone now. and i won't.

-everything goes. but the memories remain, spectres to be engaged with, and in that its not really gone. The hearts arent gone, because they are here in this book. and so is the grandfather, and so is pompey.

-i should've written more notes about the art. The combination of photos and drawings portrays memories in such a beautiful and disorienting way. its distressing, and memorable. the way some things are emphasised by the photos, Punch and Judy, and the grandfather, while other memories are more obscure sketches, like the pier and the houses. it reads like a Cecilia Condit film scary and fragmented and young, or Jan Svankmajer's (my birthday twin xx) Jabberwocky short film.

-“Everybody dies but Mister Punch, and he has only the life he steals from others”

-----

after reading the book, and spell-checking my notes. i also read this companion article by Jennifer K . Cox 'From Stage to Page: Adaptation as Survival in Neil Gaiman’s Mr. Punch' that i would like to share highlights from;

-Forbidden knowledge, portrayed as the magic of puppetry, parallels the narrator’s traumatic childhood memories; the adaptations to his memories have allowed him to survive, even if they obscure the truth of his past.

-“The path of memory is neither straight nor safe,” - Gaiman

-'In some sense, telling a story makes it happen again' - Schank (eek! i love this, it fits with the ethos of the graphic novel itself being that things change but that doesn't mean you can't return to how it was in story and memory).

-'As inanimate objects that rely on human hands to give them life, puppets represent a physical “link with the dead, with the realm of the uncanny, the threshold realm of things unknown or repressed” - Gross (sums up how i feel when i make my frog puppet dance to Modern Talking).

-“Tolkien’s view was that the myth-making imagination always tends toward truth rather than lies; that fantastic stories lead toward a genuine understanding of the conditions of existence” - Attebery

-Theatre historian John Bell describes puppets as “performing objects” and suggests that people manipulate them “in order to show us how parts of the…material world can be animated by humans. [..] that our playing with objects allows

us to come to terms with death”

-this adapted work is by and for adults. (i dont know if i particularly agree with this statement. i think kids should read tough and scary stories. Mr Punch provides a great framework for exploring ones own anguish with the world in a way thats relatable and readable. with sections feeling specifically catered towards kids. 'adults lie', 'i should've written this in blood' and the mystical views on death. Yes, they have a nostalgia factor for adult readers, but they are childish thoughts, relatable to child readers. Kids deserve thoughtful and dark stories that challenge them, that haunt them).

-For the lower classes during the eighteenth century, divorce was improbable, public hangings were employed to discourage crime, and a healthy Puritan work ethic threatened bodily harm, while a poor work ethic threatened eternal damnation; Punch thumbed his rather large nose at each of these oppressive institutions

-the narrator resist picking up the puppet for one of two reasons: because the knowledge will destroy the magic of puppetry, and if the audience knows how the magic works the genre of puppet theatre ceases to function, or because he knows wearing the puppet means he must then become Punch

#neil gaiman #punch and judy

[curseoftheeel]

Okay, turn's over. Hello everyone, here's another D&D spotlight, this time on Tormentia and how she casts her spells. Next week, Frank will be put in the spotlight of the game!

Also a quick announcement, I'm revitalizing my Patreon! 2023 was so hard because I was focusing so much on creating art for clients, but I want to redouble my efforts towards working mainly on my own stories like Curse of the Eel and more. With that in mind, I've set up the Patreon and have already made some posts for you to check out, including my new comic story, Honor Bound, which will be exclusive to Patreon until it's completed. If you can support me I would be immensely grateful, and you'll get weekly updates on my stories, including early looks at pages for Curse of the Eel! Every little bit helps, even if it's only $1 a month! And to reiterate, Eel will continue the posting it has online, I'm not putting it behind a paywall. The Patreon will give you early looks at the pages, but they'll always get uploaded to Tapas and Tumblr as before.

Honor Bound is a romance/fantasy story with a little bit of horror splashed in (shocking!). The story is about Zheng, a young squire who is attempting to return to the man they love after suffering a great loss on the battlefield. Zheng made a promise, and not even bandits, knights, nor a mysterious witch will keep Zheng from returning to their love, Rayner. This is my first attempt at a full on romance, but if you like Dungeons and Dragons, eldritch horror, and some queer love, I think you'll enjoy Honor Bound! I may post up some sneak peeks on here, but I've talked enough for now. Thank you everyone for your time and your support of me and my comics, I can't tell you how often I would look through past pages comments to remind myself that these stories matter. Have a great weekend!!

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