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millennialzadr · 5 years

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WHY I LOVE ZADR!!!

HEY GUYS WHASSUP? LMAO

So this is a whole ass giant long post of me absolutely spewing my feelings of love for ZADR, it was the very first thing I wrote when I made this blog and I think it’s a nice, positive thing for my fellow shippers to inhale and enjoy 👌👌

it was originally a reply to mitarashiart’s post about why HE loves ZADR (link in replies) but I decided to delete that and make my own post since MY WHOLE ENTIRE TEXT WALL WAS SHOWN IN THE REPLIES and drowned out anyone else who was trying to talk (thanks tumblr mobile u fuckin idiot)

I had also posted a summary of an AU that I’m working on in the original post, but decided to remove it since it just about doubled the length (I’m thinking about posting it separately along with the wips I’ve been putting together, we’ll see 👀)

But ANYWAY, here is about a million reasons why I think ZADR is the fucking best, so if you like reading gushy gay ship feelings, please enjoy ❤️❤️❤️

[Posted June 2019][WARNING, LONG ASS THOUGHT BARF]

SOOO, holy hell y’all my journey back into this fandom has been a wild and unique experience for me, i went from adding invader zim to my bookmarks on kisscartoon, rewatching the series, finding out theres a movie coming out, finding out there was a shitload of content i’d never seen before (commentaries, lost episode scripts and audios, panels, the COMIC, episodes i’d never seen because the dvd i used to watch was scratched!! and a FUCKLOAD of quality modern fan art like oh my GOD) and finally curiously googling ‘zadr’ (which i was way into when i was maybeee 13/14) to see if there was any interesting new art, and holy hell, mita (the artist above) singlehandedly THREW me down the hole into modern zadr hell, first with his absolutely stunning IZ art (all his art is dope tho check him out yo), then reading the above explanation put the final nail in the coffin like, 100%

so i wanted to add onto his post here on why this ship got me so fucked up, both for anyone who might be wondering why on earth i’m shipping two characters from a kid’s show (i’m very aware how weird that is at first glance trust me) and also so i can get some ideas down for possible future reference (will i ever draw them? maybe)

(first of all, a disclaimer, and this is not pleasant to write but it’s important to address for clarity’s sake: I have no interest in romantic or sexual relationships between minors, and do not ship zim and dib as they are presented canonically in the show (as children). what i’m interested in is the conceptualized relationship they may have as modern adults, and i view zadr more as taking the concepts of existing characters and experimenting with them with different interpretations, which i personally think is a constructive and fun creative outlet, especially if these characters hold personal significance for you (childhood faves of course). growing up together is an important facet of their relationship, and certainly they were important to each other even as children (see: mopiness of doom) but as an adult i’m personally curious about what kind of adults they might’ve become, and that’s the focus of my interest. i’ll still be reblogging regular IZ art because it’s dope but if you see shippy looking art of them as tiny lil beans its either friendship or chibis (and i personally headcanon zim as getting taller with dib but some people stick with his canonical height when drawing them as adults, which is super short. it still doesn’t mean he’s a kid). aaand i wish i didnt have to write this and it would just be obvious but we live in a sick sad world and it is sourced from a children’s cartoon so i feel its necessary. end of disclaimer)

NOW THAT THAT’S OUT OF THE WAY

- ok, first reason’s a bit obvious - the nostalgia. holy hell, the feeling of rediscovering a ship that was popular when i was a preteen during the mid 2000s and discovering a totally new perspective on it as an adult comes with an almost totally overwhelming sense of nostalgia and comfort, as well as inspiration!! the kind of art that seems so common for zadr, these sketch pages of scenes and expressions and visual gags where artists would just scribble every idea they had and LOVE doing it, this was exactly the kind of art that made me so passionate about drawing as a kid, and it still sparks such a powerful feeling of love and admiration for me to this day. fan content of iz and zadr is simultaneously achingly familiar and totally new and fascinating, and it just makes me SO damn happy to consume, it is most definitely my new comfort content. and just, GOD. THE ART!! SO GOOD. FUCK

- now for the characters themselves: for some reason i just really love the thought of a mid twenties, modern Dib?? lanky goth dork, disaster bi, depressed as shit, uses bad sweaters and memes to cope?? when i was a kid i didn’t even LIKE Dib, but now i totally sympathize with him! he’s just a hyper obsessive nerd wishing there was more to life than the situation he got stuck with, how wildly relatable. he was a pretty big asshole as a kid (even to people besides zim) but he was also totally isolated and constantly bullied, so there’s a lot of room for growth. i feel there’s a lot of juicy character development potential for that boy, and there’s always been a special place in my heart for characters who are totally sad and screwed and hopeless, but there’s one thing, or person, that means the world to them and could possibly save them…

- aliens. Zim. i love nonhuman characters, i love monsters, i love aliens, i love characters that don’t understand human shit (and thus have much less room for shame or fear bc theyre just totally oblivious the negatives of modern society) and need guidance (bonding!!) from their human. i also love morally grey characters and characters with skewed logic, they’re always really interesting, and Zim himself just has such a unique personality and set of mannerisms, he contradicts himself a lot and you can never quite expect how he’ll behave, and i love that in a character, it makes them super versatile and fun, especially since there’s so many different possibilities for their development. Also, Zim is a gremlin, a little shit, and a disaster. I also love those traits in a character. And don’t even get me started on his character design?? big sparkly eyes? expressive antennae? monster teeth? complimenting colors? he’s adorable.

- mutual obsession. for someone like Dib, who seems almost repulsed by how boring and slow the people around him are, Zim quite literally personifies Dib’s escapist fantasies, both as an inhuman entity from beyond the stars, and as a person who’s knowledge, charisma and mystery far exceeds that of anyone Dib has met in his entire life. (so basically what i’m saying is that for a shunned, jaded misanthropist, an actual alien is terribly alluring, even if said alien is dangerous, stupid, and possibly insane). not to mention Zim vindicates Dib’s entire life passion, the supernatural! Even when their relationship is totally negative, there is not a single inch of room for Dib to get tired of Zim. as mita explained, they validate each other. for Zim, WHO AGAIN, IS TOTALLY SHUNNED, ISOLATED, AND HATED BY EVERYONE HE KNOWS, Dib is the only person in the universe who gives a single shit about him!! he gives Zim credit as a threat, a capable invader, which if you ask me is the sole thing Zim is after (he’s hellbent on his mission because it would win him the approval of the tallest, all he’s ever wanted is recognition from the people he thinks so highly of). He literally gets depressed when Dib isn’t around to pay attention to him, not even the tallest were enough to motivate him before Dib came back. these two have no one and nothing without each other, and while lifelong nemeses is fine and dandy, i personally prefer friendship, affection and love, cause i’m a softie like that. how could they possibly get there after years of actively trying to kill each other?? well, i think under just the right circumstances it could become a possibility after a long, long time.

- growth. i. love. me. some. good. character growth. especially for characters with trauma/mental illness, bc again, relatable. these boys have issues, and as mita mentioned, their canon stories are actually INCREDIBLY sad! but the happy thought is, they could recover! they could help each other recover, for little reason other than the two are the only source of happiness for each other. now of course this also opens the gate for angst lovers, but at the same time offers potential for comforting, uplifting content of the boys supporting and inspiring each other, maybe even to the point of becoming happy and healthy enough to create the lives they want for themselves (as in appreciating life and doing things that make them actually happy instead of the delusions of grandeur they both sought when they were younger). gimme that positive shit and let the poor beans be happy щ(ಠ益ಠщ)

- LITTLE THINGS. LITTLE THINGS THAT ONLY COME WITH CHILDHOOD FRIENDS. WITH HUMAN/NONHUMAN. WITH THE SHOW’S WEIRD LOGIC. Zim being the person Dib knows best and vice versa. Zim having an involuntary respect/admiration for Dib because he’s tall. Learning each other’s needs, limits, and communication methods, both emotionally and biologically. Sensitive antennae. Affectionate bickering. Being less insecure bc your partner literally has no idea why you see your flaws as flaws. Laughing at the flaws they do notice because they make no sense. Zim only wanting to eat waffles and chow mein. Dib being forced to overcome his depression lethargy and stay hygienic/keep the apartment clean because Zim has a sharper sense of smell and is afraid of germs. Endless conversation about anything and everything because they’re from literally different worlds, and endless intrigue. TOUCHING. TALKING. DOING EVERYTHING LIKE ITS THE VERY FIRST TIME AND ALWAYS NEEDING THE OTHER TO GUIDE THEM. HOLY HELL THERE IS SO MUCH POSSIBILITY FOR TINY LITTLE MOMENTS THAT MEAN THE WORLD. FUCK. GOT ME FUCKED UP.

so that wraps up the why. fuck man. its just such a good ship. if you read this big ass text post, thank you for indulging me, i hope you enjoyed it! because i enjoy it very much 👀 so stick around if you’d like to for a shit load of IZ and zadr content on this blog, possibly (MAYBE) even from me!! come roll around in alien hell with me why dontcha ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ its a fun time! thanks for reading!!!

SO THAT’S MY MANIFESTO Y’ALL, FEEL FREE TO REPLY WITH YOUR OWN REASONS!! I WOULD LOVE FOR THIS POST TO JUST BECOME A BIG GIANT PILE OF LOVE AND YELLING!! GO NUTS! SCREAM ABOUT IT! INFODUMP! DO WHATEVER YOU WANT! I’LL READ EVERY LAST REPLY! Y’ALL DESERVE TO ENJOY YOUR SHIP BC IT’S LITERALLY THE FUCKING BEST!!! LOVE Y’ALL!!!!!!

#in this trying time of shippers being stressed over discourse #i offer a gift<3 because i love you guys #and we should spread the love #i want yall to go OFF #tell me every little fuckin thing about zadr that makes ur heart doki OK #LETS GO 👏👏👏#invader zim #zadr #text post #my post #long post

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thefloatingstone · 5 years

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Would you please make me a list of your rcommended comics(books or web-series any genre original content or fanworks)

Oh that’s a god one! Thank you so very much 💙 Let me see what I have on my shelf and on my hard drive. (I don’t know if I’ve ever made a list of my favourite comics before or not here on tumblr?)

in no particular order;

1: Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai

I dunno if it ever really shows or not, but Japanese historical settings are something I’m really into! I think it’s one of those dormant interests that flares up every now and then. Anyway. Usagi Yojimbo has basically been tied for my favourite comic for over 10 years now. It’s a series of stories, both short and with longer arcs, following the character of Miyamoto Usagi (roughly based on Miyamoto Musashi) travelling around the country of Japan in the early 1600s as a Ronin after the lord he served was defeated and killed in battle. Usagi, being one of his samurai, is not killed in the same battle which, considering his lord was killed, is a massive disgrace in historical Japanese culture. Basically along the thought of “If your lord died and you didn’t you must not have fought hard enough to protect him.”

Anyway, the comic is both a history lesson on Edo period Japan, a travel diary, a slice of life comic, a Chanbara, an action comic, some times even a horror or ghost story, a tragedy involving unfulfilled love and lost families, a lesson on traditional Japanese Yokai and other mythology, and now and then high fantasy.

10/10. HIGHLY recommend. The author Stan Sakai is also a wonderful person I’ve had the pleasure to meet a few times at Comic Con. And considering he like... remembers who I AM despite being an extremely famous comic artist... I dunno. I have endless respect for the man and he’s shown me great kindness in the past.

Also you know... black and white comics. They’re my jam, yo!

2: Bone by Jeff Smith

I have no idea if I even have to say anything because Bone might just, without hyperbole, be the greatest comic ever drawn.

At 1300+ pages drawn over the course of 10 years, the story starts out as a cartoon, full of hijinks and fun adventures and jokes and very slowly, reality starts setting in, things get more dangerous, the stakes get higher, the bad guys much darker. And by the time you reach book 3 of the 9 book story, you’re suddenly in a story of the “epic” variety. Not in the internet slang term but in the actual definition of the word.

You have massive wars between men and monsters, you have clashing cultures and ideologies, conflicting motivations and goals, and of course saving the world.

And it manages to do so without you EVER feeling “Excuse me but this was a cartoon book about funny jokes. This shift in tone is really weird and doesn’t work with the cartoony characters.”

It just blends and grows beautifully. And has remained as my favourite comic for... *counts* lord... 14 years now.

The book was recently released in a new colour version in case you prefer hat, but I honestly recommend “The Brick” single volume black and white version. It’s cheaper, first of all, but also I cannot express how masterful the blacks and whites of Bone are. They’re essentially Watterson level.

(also Jeff Smith is ANOTHER comic artist who is just like... the nicest person. Like REALLY nice. He’s been kind to me on occasions in that “you really didn’t have to be that nice” kind of way)

3: The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa

It’s published by Disney officially... but the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is essentially a fancomic. The only reason its not is because Don Rosa became SO GOOD at making duck comics Disney hired him to make them officially and he was SO GOOD at it became one of the most important Duck artists just after Carl Barks (the creator of Scrooge) himself.

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is a comprehensive biography of Scrooge McDuck’s life, not just made up by Don Rosa, but pieced together from Carl Barks’ own comics where he would have Scrooge make passing mention to events in his past or people he met. Don Rosa essentially took all these passing remarks and mentions and drew out a timeline, starting with Scrooge age 13 leading all the way up to his reunion with his family when Donald as an adult met up with him again.

It starts with Scrooge, from a poor family in Glasgow in 1877, boarding a ship for America to seek his fortune. We follow him through the years as with each chapter, he comes close to being rich and successful, only for it to fail or fall apart at the last minute, until, eventually, we see him catch his break and become the obscenely rich and successful person he’s fought and worked and bled so hard to be.

...and then the comic continues. And we see him lose himself. Greed, the constant need for MORE money and MORE success keeps going. The need to show HOW rich and successful he is takes over, until we see him and his family fall apart. And the comic echoes Citizen Kane as Scrooge realises the best time of his life was when he was seeking riches, not after he finally succeeded.

And then Donald and his nephews appear, and Scrooge’s life gets a second wind. His lust for adventure flares up again, his need to seek fortunes and treasures burns as strong as ever. And he keeps going.

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is a story about looking for your place in the world and fighting to create it with your own two hands, but it’s also about how you should think hard where you place your value in life, and it’s never too late to re-direct course and try again.

There is also “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion” which is a collection of stories that didn’t fit in with the original comic and would have disrupted flow. Basically like how a fanfic will have oneshots related to a larger story

Also, the producer of the band “Nightwish” created a soundtrack to accompany the original comic as a sort of “What If” in what he imagined the story would sound like if it was made into a movie

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4: Cucumber Quest by Gigi D.G. ( @ggdgart )

A newer comic I stumbled upon which has skyrocketed into being a fave and I can already tell, that’s not a position it’s gonna relinquish. Cucumber Quest is a more cartoony and comedic story than the previous comics on this list. But that by no means makes it of any less value or dulls the moments that this comic decides to punch you in the gut with emotions HARD.

The art and colours are glorious and something I hope to study so I can better my own art hopefully, and the writing and humour is of a calibre that I just know I could not replicate it if I even tried. Full of puns, absurdism, awkward jokes and a whole lot of FEELINGS, It manages to make me both laugh myself into a coughing fit as often as it makes me yell “OH NOOOO!!!” when something dramatic happens.

The story follows our main character Cucumber, a put-upon out-of-his-depth wizard-to-be who is tasked with saving the world from the evil Nightmare Knight who has been summoned from his thousand year slumber by an evil sorcerer who wants to take over the world (as you do). With him is his little sister, the sword wielding Almond, who is WAY more into this “being a hero” thing than he is (and probably better at it too) as the duo make friends and travel to the various kingdoms to defeat the Nightmare Knight’s lackeys, working their way up to fighting the Nightmare Knight himself and sealing him away once more!

That all sounds.... really straightforward, doesn’t it? Well... that’s what everybody else in the comic thinks too. ...Shame that real life is never easy and straightforward.

From evil henchmen that start crushing on cool “Good Guys” with cool swords, good guys who don’t REALLY want to hurt the bad guys because they don’t seem so bad? To cool good guys with cool swords suddenly learning that being in danger is not as much fun as it sounded when they started this. To big evil final boss bad guys who are just tired of all of this...

What’s also awesome is the entire comic... all OVER 800 PAGES OF IT... is completely free to read online! But you can also buy physical copies of the first 4 volumes in book form to support the author!

http://cucumber.gigidigi.com/cq/page-1/

I HIGHLY recommend this one too! It has canon LGBT characters! It has found family plots! It has scary bad guys that just need a hug! It has magical girl transformations! Literally anything you could want is in this comic. Including emotional wrecking angst! Did I mention FEELINGS???

(I couldn’t pick a single page so here are 3 random ones without context. Seriously almost EVERY page is so good I struggled very hard to choose)

5: The Property of Hate by @modmad

Hey. Do you like fantasy worlds made of imagination? How about protagonists with grey morality who act like super primand proper gentlemen when they’re actually huge nerds? How about reluctant “Well I guess I’ve ADOPTED you now you annoying gremlin” adult-kid relationships? How about puns? How about abstract and colourfull character designs? Or saving the world?

The Property of Hate is Modmad’s original comic that they’ve been working on a few years now. it follows our lead character, RGB or “Problematic Mary Poppins” as I like to think of him, as he asks a young child if she’d like to be a hero and help him save his world? When she agrees, he takes her to a fantasy land... completely NOT preparing her for what she’s signed up for. The story then follows the duo through the abstract and shifting world as RGB slowly divulges information on what exactly our Hero has to do to save the world. It turns out it’s a lot more complicated and messy than merely “beat the bad guy” or anything like that.

Not to mention it seems this fantasy world has its own rules of reality and dangers. Emotions and abstract thoughts have real physical form here, and something like an “idea” can quite literally run around and create havoc, while something like dreams can fuel or destroy, and emotions like grief can cause irreparable damage.

Our Hero also learns RGB himself is a lot more complex and messy than he first appears. Seeming to be a good person trying to do good things (despite being a little stand offish and rude at times) but seems to also be carrying a past and the weight of having done some very very bad things “for the greater good”. And our Hero, as well as we, the readers, start wondering how much we should trust him, even though, just like our Hero, deep deep down we just know we WANT to trust him. And maybe he needs saving just as much as the world itself does. Even when he’s at his scariest and... not quite himself.

The Property of Hate is also available online completely for free. Modmad does have books for sale but I believe it’s on-demand or something along those lines. Please feel free to message them here on tumblr and they are happy to chat to their readers and interact.

http://thepropertyofhate.com/TPoH/The%20Hook/1

I think I’ll leave it there despite meaning to do 10 at first because this is already EXTREMELY long.

Hopefully you found something that seems interesting! Let me know if you decide to check any of these out and whether you ended up liking them or not! I’d love to hear your opinions.

And thank you for indulging me <3

(I’m trying to remember to add my ko-fi link to all longer posts like this I make. Especially since I keep forgetting ☕️Buy me a Ko-fi ☕️ )

#lucymelonbun #C-Puff answers #Long post #image heavy #Comics #comic recommendations #comic recs #I added a read more to this post but tumblr ate it so whatever #thank you for letting me ramble about stuff I like #I feel better <3

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apollon-hyakinthios · 6 years

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Are you sad because all the good writers have left the Hetalia fandom?

Do you spend a lot of time focusing on famous authors that have been inactive for years, and fics that were published half a decade ago?

Do you miss the way the fandom used to be? Do you even feel like the fandom is dying and nobody is making fanworks as good as they used to be?

Well, I have some good news for you - Hetalia fanfic is alive and well, and there are many wonderful authors still active in our fandom!

So, where do I start looking?

Luckily, five other wonderful people from our fandom and i have put together a blog that has an archive of recently-written hetalia fanfic, just for people like you who want to find more fanfic and get to know more authors in the aph fandom but don’t know where to begin!

The HWD Official Blog is the Tumblr account for the Discord server we run - the Hetalia Writers’ Discord, a growing community of over 100 active writers! On the HWD, we come together to share our work, exchange feedback, support one anothers’ projects, make friends, get motivated to finish projects, and more! And we’re in the process of collecting all of the work of our writers on the HWD Official Blog , so that any and all of you lovely people in the fandom can check out what we have to offer!!

And we have it organized into an easy-to-use directory format just for you. Here’s how to get started browsing!

FANFIC: If you’re looking for fanfic in general and you don’t have a specific character or pairing in mind, this is the place for you! Our Fanfic tag includes only writing by our members - no blog maintenance, update or announcement posts - and includes all characters, ships, genres and ratings.

TAG DIRECTORY: This is the place to go if you’re looking for works that feature specific characters, pairings, ratings or genres! HWD is completely ship-neutral and hosts works of all pairings.

CREATOR DIRECTORY: This is the place to go to check out our wonderful writers by name, including their Tumblrs, their AO3 and FFN accounts, and more! This page was put together by Mod Sara, @kanadka !!!

Our directories are always being updated and added onto!! If you don’t see your favorite ship or character, don’t worry - we are still in the process of adding to our archive and categorizing all the fanfic we already have on our blog, and you’re sure to find more if you explore the general Fanfic tag!

But to help you get more of a feel for what we’re all about, here are some of my favorite fics from our writers!

Non, je ne regrette rien by @gnostic-heretic

Pairing: Lithuania/Poland, France/Poland

Rating: M

Genre: Historical, Drama

“It would be a wonderful evening, a wonderful night ahead, and he had never been happier in his life.”

god who ate everything by @52px

Characters: Rome, Carthage, Etruria, Macedon, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt

Pairing: Carthage/Etruria

Rating: G

Genre: Historical, Drama

“—did this world feed you?

The pallid web of peace sticking the Mediterranean together since the last war is cut into pieces. To discuss just how unhappy the Romans are that Carthage is not dead yet, Carthage himself is called to Rome. Easier said than done, as he has been under the ancient equivalent of house arrest for years and is barely fit to board a boat. What's worse, to test his limits, the living ghost nation must travel much deeper into Italy than anticipated. Along the way, Carthage faces supernatural feelings centuries-buried before he faces his final grave.”

Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man by @bonjourxrenae

Pairing: America/Lithuania

Rating: G

Genre: Fluff, Romance, Historical

“Missisippi, 1928. Alfred receives a new record for his Victrola. Upon trying to serenade his houseguest Toris with showtunes, he winds up being serenaded instead.”

Between Shadows. by @morgenstille

Pairing: Belarus/Lithuania

Rating: T

Genre: Romance

One of my favorite passages from this fic: “In another life, the two of them are married and have a family. Toris wonders what their children would look like; it’s pointless speculation, of course, they can’t have children, but still, he wonders.”

Star Crossed by @flyingsassysaddles

Pairing: Nyo!Tibet/Nyo!Mongolia

Rating: T

Genre: Historical, Romance, Tragedy

A favorite passage: “Khulan trembled, burying herself into the Tibetan’s chest and feeling the week pulse of her friend’s heart.

The pulse sang a song Khulan had been listening to for 13 years, from the first time she met the crying girl who had fallen off her horse, to the first time they held hands when playing in the snow, to when the girl trailed behind her as she brought the hunt back home, smiling when Khulan returned to her day and night.”

bless me, father by @scandinavienne

Pairing: Germany/North Italy

Rating: T

Genre: Historical, Romance

“In Renaissance Florence, Feliciano struggles under the weight of his family name.”

napom, fényes napom by @phyripowritesthings

Pairing: Belarus/Hungary

Rating: T

Genre: Romance

“During less than a decade but spanning two millennia all the same, Hungary learns that she’s been missing out by not having gotten to know Belarus better, and she finds that maybe they’re just each other’s thing.”

The Dimensional Door by @scarlettlillies

Characters: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, Sweden

Rating: T

Genre: Alternate Universe

“Eduard thought he was living a normal life, with good friends and a future he was working hard towards. But the world he lives in is not what it seems when he finds himself plunged into a role that only existed in the comics that Feliks liked. But he isn't alone in all this. He's glad for it, considering monsters and portals showing up left, right, and center.”

Wonderfully creative Sailor Moon AU that Lilly has put a ton of hard work and love into!!!

Blood on Gold by @aph-belarusia

Pairing: Belarus/Romania

Rating: M

Genre: Supernatural, Romance, Gothic Horror

“The young voivode Vladimir Dragulescu upon the death of his mother, decides to summon an Ancient Entity to carry his desire for revenge but ends up falling in love for such Being.”

Cross Life by @rantingfangirl

Pairing: America/England

Rating: T

Genre: Alternate Universe, Romance

“Given the choice to change his ways or face the consequences, Arthur is propelled from urban England to the American suburbs, putting up with all the drama, pettiness, and idiots that go with it.”

La Pioggia by @lluviadinoche

Pairing: Spain/Romano

Rating: G

Genre: Fantasy, Alternate Universe

“He loved through a paper. Words that sang and touched his soul lighting fires in the deepest parts of his soul. Antonio was in love. If only who knew with who.”

Castaway by @paperbarks

Characters: Australia, England

Rating: T

Genre: Historical

“All I want is you gone,” says Australia. The imperial statutes, the English judges, the marks of foreign settlement, the hoisted flags – all of it escapes him in the moment. Later he might think it childish, but in the present, England is an all-encompassing entity. England’s absence is the absence of control.”

The Gods’ Share by @kanadka

Characters: Lithuania, Poland, Prussia

Pairing: Lithuania/Prussia

Rating: M

Genre: Historical

“At the beginning of the 1400s, the Teutonic Order was at the height of its power. Their navy ruled the Baltic and their Prussian cities were affluent enough to wholly cover the cost of maintaining the crusading army of the Teutonic Knights as a standing force. By 1435, the country was demoralised and discontented, trounced by a gang of heretics, and all but powerless. Here's how it happened.”

And we have many, many more where these wonderful fics came from!

So check out our blog and take a look!! We are a growing community and we’re adding to our fic archives all the time, and with your support we can continue to grow and make this fandom a more creative, encouraging, and happier place to be!!! <3

#hetalia #hetalia fanfiction #axis powers hetalia #hetalia fanfic

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iamjacsmusings · 6 years

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MCU Challenge musings

18 weeks. 18 films. The MCU Challenge. In collaboration with Team #Geekstalkers. Collated musings below, all leading to Infinity War.

#1 - Iron Man

Robert Downey Jnr IS Tony Stark, Tony Stark IS Iron Man, Iron Man IS the first MCU Avenger. Without this we wouldn’t have the MCU as we know and love it. Despite that, coming soon after Batman’s triumphant return as it does, I can’t help but feel the identikit Iron Man Begins falls a little flat. The weak MCU villain problem is present and incorrect right from Mk 1 too.

#2 - The Incredible Hulk

Tonally misjudged and (latterly) at odds with the hulk as we know and love him in the shared MCU. Watching now, 15 entries later, it feels non-canon. As a standalone, inspired by the 70s show, it’s fine.

#3 - Iron Man 2

Probably [one of] the weakest #mcuchallenge entries for me as it aims for “cool” moments rather than developing character or overarching story. On the flipside, it introduces us to ScarJo’s Black Widow

#4 - Thor

In no particular order: the direction of Branagh, the realisation of the Rainbow bridge, the triple H acting of Hemsworth, Hiddleston and Hopkins, the hilarious humour, the majesty of Mjolnir, the Shakespearean plot machinations; all are Thor-some!

#5 - Captain America: The First Avenger

I (too) was predisposed to preferring this origin above all Avengers due to my predilection for Captain America as a character, so the bar was set high. Johnson, the perfectly chosen director, exceeded it by making a boys own adventure replete with echoes of his Lucasfilm roots. It’s underrated in my opinion and should be considered as the Raiders of Phase One. Joe Johnson just *got* 1940s Adventure-era Cap. As too does Evans who only continues to get better with each subsequent appearance. I could watch Cap movies all day…

#6 - Avengers Assemble

Still top 5 MCU of all-time. The Avengers characterisations are spot on in this initial assemblage; no mean feat considering the wealth of source material, the origins of Phase One and the balancing act of at least seven key roles. Come the epic Chitauri invasion finale and from the Avengers arc shot onwards there’s too many fist-pumping, geekgasm moments to mention; spine tingling each and every one of them.

#7 - Iron Man 3

As a fanboy of @BonafideBlack’s buddy banter and noir stylings, I’m on board with his Iron Man entry (noir is an anagram of Iron after all) He write characters therefore it came as no surprise that his take delves beneath the suit to the mechanic that wears it. I’m aware I’m in the minority, but the first two don’t do much for me therefore this is like a shot of extremis to Shellhead’s previously floundering solo entries. It still looks to be Stark’s swansong and, if so, it’s a fine way to finish IMO. Kiss Kiss Iron Man, if you will. The “barrel of monkeys” scene is one of the stand out scenes from the entire MCU too.

#8 - Thor: The Dark World

The tone, palette and plot of this inferior sequel is arguably more aligned with the much maligned DC(E)U rather than the rightly-lauded MCU; make of that what you will. I’d gladly watch an anthology prequel about the Lord of the Aether battle glimpsed in the prologue though…

#9 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

An espionage thriller every bit as good as the best Bourne or Bond has to offer, Captain America: The Winter Soldier just happens to have a few present and future Avengers at its centre. The undisputed leader of the Avengers as the 18-strong MCU currently stands, the more I revisit Captain America Super Soldier, the closer the film creeps towards my current cream of the big screen comic book crop, The Dark Knight.

#10 - Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy is better than any film about a half-Terran cross between Han Solo and Indiana Jones, a walking thesaurus, a talking tree, a green-skinned warrior woman and a bad-tempered raccoon has any right to be. I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve seen GotG already. There’s so much to admire, so much Galaxy to explore. it bears repeat viewing. Every joke still lands. Every emotional beat pulls a heart string. Every character is worthy of fronting their own galactic adventure. We. Are. Groot.

#11 - Avengers: Age of Ultron

There’s much to admire in this movie as Whedon ably juggles the ever-growing ensemble cast; each one gets their moment so, no matter who your favourite is, you should feel satisfied come the conclusion. The action scenes pay off with key moments that remain in the memory: the team line-up, “Go to sleep, go to sleep”, Black Widow on the bike, Hawkeye motivating Scarlet Witch and the arc shot around the Avengers as they end the threat of too many Ultrons. Quiet moments pay off too: the party is perfect (especially Thor’s face as Cap moves Mjolnir), the interlude at ranch Barton is a top idea and the lull in the final fight manages to move; I even welled up a little as Cap and Widow debate their fate this watch. In short, it’s endlessly rewatchable, as my SuperSon has put to the test.

#12 - Ant-Man

Easily the most underrated entry in the entirety of the MCU to date, Ant-Man is also, upon reflection, my favourite solo character origin story. Giant-sized words, I know!

#13 - Captain America: Civil War

War! What is it good for? Captain America movies!

I love Civil War. It’s edgy. It;s important. It’s epic! It truly feels like a “superhero comic book movie” ripped from the panelled page. And, Thor damn, the Russo’s sure can shoot the shit (Sorry, Cap) out of an action scene. Speaking of scenes, there’s one in Fight Club when the Narrator and Tyler mock a Gucci advertisement, asking if it’s what a real man look like. It’s not, no. What a real man looks like is Captain America holding a helicopter with one arm and a building with the other. Swoon.

I could watch this on repeat all day.

#14 - Doctor Strange

Let’s face it, Cumberbatch was the only choice for Strange, as suited to the hyper-intelligent, egotistical, socially-awkward auteur as Downey Jr was to Stark’s genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist. By this point in the MCU, Marvel can do origin with ease as this return to formula proves. Whilst Doctor Strange does remind you of movies from before (Iron Man, Batman Begins, Inception, Matrix), it patches them together into a kaleidoscopic Frankenstein of its own making.

Oh, one more thing: it goes without saying how awesome Doctor Strange’s enchanted Cloak of Levitation is – I’d argue it’s the single best cinema companion since Gromit!

#15 - Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol Two

GotG amped up to 11, Vol. 2 is less a case of difficult second volume, more Gunn locked and loaded. GotG2 is deeper, richer and cleverer than it’s predecessor, if not as instantly iconic nor anarchic in its punk rock aesthetics or impact. Ego, we’ve all got to grow up sometime. Following the near perfection of the first Volume was always going to be a tricky proposition, but this sophomore space saga soars true enough and will surely, in time, serve as a solid central entry in a worthy Guardians of the Galaxy stand-alone trilogy.

#16 - Spider-Man: Homecoming

Did I need another resuited Spider-Man movie so soon after the last aborted attempt? I didn’t think so until I saw this coming-of-age comedy that referenced Ferris Bueller, BttF: Part II and The Breakfast Club (among others)

Did I need another iteration of Spider-Man and his teen geek alter-ego Peter Parker? I didn’t think so until I saw Tom Holland’s infectiously enthusiastic and ultimately incomparable portrayal of everyone’s favourite neighbourhood webslinging wannabe Avenger.

Did I need another potentially disappointing take on a classic Spider-Man villain? I didn’t think so until Michael Keaton’s birdman soared above almost any other adapted antagonist from the entirety of comic canon – not since Loki have I feared and cheered in equal measure.

Did I need another big screen Spider-Man blockbuster? I didn’t think so until I understood what this wall-crawlers direction was under the genius creative control of chief Watcher Feige within the winning MCU. Now I need more, for thwips sake…

#17 - Thor Ragnarok

Space fantasy as its Flash(“ahh ah”)iest, Ragnarok is: Thorsome, Hela good, Full of gloriously glib Loki asides, a Hulk load of fun, great Valkyrie for money! Third time’s the charm for the God of Thunder. I can’t TaikaWaititi to see the Revengers return in Infinity War!

#18 - Black Panther

Stunning Wakanda world building. Convincing and charismatic cast performances. Strong character motivations. Serious and meaningful underlying themes. Too much CGI. MCU continuity issues. Nowhere near enough Michael B Jordan. Good not great. Middling MCU Challenge entry for me.

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crookedtalks · 6 years

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Bookish Thoughts: Absolute Power: Tales of Queer Villainy

Book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33789743-absolute-power

Goodreads synopsis: DANGEROUS WOMEN: TALES OF QUEER VILLAINY—edited and with an introduction by lesbian comics tastemaker Erica Friedman—brings you thirteen short stories of power, destruction and chaos by women who love other women almost as much as they love taking over the world! These 238 pages of deliciously dastardly stories of super-powered villainy are contained in a wraparound cover by artist Agnes Czaja (Anything That Loves) and contain contributions from a group of visionary writers.

Well, this book took me a lot longer than I thought to finish reading. ^^; This is the second anthology I’m reviewing on this blog, and I must say I enjoyed this anthology more than the previous one. I would give this anthology a 3.75 stars out of 4, but it’s not quite a 4 star read - so only a 3 star on goodreads (why no half-star system goodreads??).

I got this ebook from the kickstarter campaign and I was very excited to read it, and to support it, not only because it features queer characters (as main characters) and queer romance, but it is also written by queer authors, which is even rarer, and I feel that it is important (personally) that these books get read and reviewed too. I feel like book reviewers whether on social media platforms like youtube, or book bloggers can do a bigger part to lend their voice to these more neglected books, and I want to do that more on this blog, starting with this book.

I really loved that the queerness of the characters wasn’t the whole/sole plot point for the stories (as if that’s the only reason why queer characters are protagonists) and that the queer characters in this anthology are all spread across a spectrum of moralities (the villains and the heroes). The stories were also very different from each other, with each of the stories having their own colourful worlds and and uniquely powerful voices. Overall, it was a fun ride, much like a rollercoaster at a theme park. I’ll definitely me checking out more releases by North West Press in the future. In bold are the stories that I particularly liked (keep in mind that I have a preference for more serious stories), with a small comment on each of the stories in the collection.

1. Final Grades by Erica Friedman

This story had a really interesting setting of a supervillain school, which I thought gave the reader a very interesting “frame” going into the story. There’s a plot twist at the end which was not completely unpredictable though, since it was already revealed at the start of the story that only a single person has ever graduated from the supervillain school.

2. Date Night by Tristan J. Tarwater

Another classic supervillain story, where the supervillain goes on a date which gets interrupted by her sidekick. Her date though turns out to be someone unexpected. A fun, fast paced short read with some somewhat predictable twists (which kept the story moving and interesting) and flashy action near the end.

3. Eden’s Revenge by Missouri Vaun

Unlike the previous two stories, this is not a supervillain story but more of a vengeance story where our protagonist/villain is seeking revenge against the man who caused her sister’s suicide. It was all right, I didn’t really gel with this story as well though for some reason. Part of it could be because I didn’t really care for the protagonist - again, most likely a personal preference thing. Not sure about how I feel about the protagonist’s revenge plan being explained as “insanity” at the end of the story though...

4. Gentleman Jack by Barbara Ann Wright

Our protagonist/villain, a smug cross-dressing robber with charm abilities, meets her match in a stubborn, slightly uptight law women armed with science. This has potential to be a satisfying rom-com plot. I kind of wished that the story was a teeny bit longer just to see their cat-and-mouse relationship develop, but at the same time it ended at a place where it felt right. Great character chemistry.

5. Fallen by Audrey Chase

A much more serious story than the previous ones (which were all pretty light-hearted), which also has the gore factor turned up significantly higher. The grittiness and violence in this story was a refreshing change, and showed how terrifying and devastating a villain’s actions can be. This story, I feel, has one of the more interesting “grey” villains, with less clear-cut motives and “evilness”, which I really liked, but may not be for everyone. I would say this is the first story in the collection that I would peg as a tragedy.

6. The Devil Inside by JD Glass

A reporter visits hell to interview the devil herself, then gets interrupted by a mutiny. It was a fun read at first, with the little quips and jokes (eg. hell monsters needing moisturizers for their dry non-human skin), but it soon got on my nerves when the jokes started to get a bit too repetitive/play too much into stereotypes/too random and irrelevant to the plot, only present to provide some cheap humour, and it felt like the writer is a bit too confident of how funny they are and is smugly rubbing it in your face; however, humour is a very subjective thing and it might just be that it didn’t hit the right buttons in me. I felt like the “twist” at the end was confusing and didn’t make any sense/fit into the plot too.

7. Glitter Bomb by Emily Kay Singer

A fun, nonsensical read that relishes in just how absurd its own plot is. Obviously, this is not a story you read for a “deep” plot, or even a plot that makes sense, which is fine because the author is obviously aware of that, and plays around with the common “superhero story” tropes, which makes it even more entertaining. It ends with a tidy, sweet and romantic ending (for people who like happy endings).

8. For Want of a Heart by A. Merc Rustad

Oh man, this story made me cry a few tears. Maybe because for a moment I really clicked with the protagonist and identified with what she was going through in the story. Not a happy ending (no spoilers though!), but I really loved the use of language, in this story for some reason. I feel like this is a bud that could have been expanded into a much longer, more elaborate complex story, with more fleshed out characters and more complex motivations, which in some ways is a shame. Personally, probably up there as one of my favourites in this anthology, although I felt that the ending was a bit rushed which made the reveal at the end less impactful.

9. Absolution by Claire Monserrat Jackson

You can tell that the author has really put some thought in terms of world building - the history that was briefly mentioned, the magic system etc. This story takes place in a futuristic post-apocalyptic world where the Fae (fairy-land) has sort of burst through into the human world and caused all sorts of problems, and our protagonist in this story is a spunky (presumably powerful) for-hire problem-solver with magic powers, who has a undead “Afterlife” chain-smoking sidekick. I really liked the characters and the world-building, and there seems to be an entire novella the author has written based on this world, which I will definitely be checking out.

10. So Many Things Seem Filled With the Intent by Jude McLaughlin

Our main protagonist visits the lab of an evil mad scientist with her girlfriend, which is great because all the previous stories have yet to feature an evil mad scientist. This story felt like an small exploration of the “mad scientist” trope, featuring both a “good” mad scientist (our protagonist’s girlfriend) and an “evil” one, but at the same time, the scientist characters felt distinct from each other and developed enough. I liked the sense of rivalry between the scientist characters, and personally I liked the main protagonist quite a bit.

11. The Prado By Chance by Leia Weathington

Our main protagonist is an underpaid, underappreciated, and unabashedly corrupt FBI agent who one day gets a little surprise on one of her under-the-table “missions”. I like how our protagonist needs to rely mainly on her cunning to manipulate and carry out her plans and not any kind of super power or ability like the other stories; it makes the protagonist feel immediately a few degrees more human and closer to home, especially since greed and corruption are very human in nature.

12. Jaguar Light by Susan Smith

Our protagonist, a petty criminal who lives in accordance with her desires and fancies, teams up with her nemesis when another villain gains power that gets out of control. I really liked the incorporation of Aztec mythology as the source of power for our protagonist in the story; I also thought that the main villain was pretty lame (and I’m not just referring to her name), because there I didn’t feel any real punch behind her desire for power. She’s pretty flat as a character, and with such weak motivations that I didn’t feel that threatened at any point in the story at all. Her connection to the protagonist was also kind of explained in a one-liner which feels a little too casual. However, I liked the dynamics and contrasts between the protagonist and her nemesis.

13. Chrome Crash by Mari Kurisato

This story is a little messy and hard to describe but I’ll try my best: the story splits into two at the beginning, following the history of two girls with powers who seem to be unrelated at first, but we discover their connection to each other as the story progresses. It sounds vague I know, but I had the feeling of looking into murky water when I was reading this story. One thing that confused me the most was that at the beginning of the story we got a whole chunk of a part of one of the girls’ pasts, which I thought was her origin story at first in relation to the rest of the story, but upon nearing the end I realized that it had no bearing on the original plot of the story at all - it was not an origin story, nor explained any of the character’s personality, traits, trauma, etc, etc, and that whole chunk could have been taken out with no change to the original story. Also, regarding the connection between the two girls as mentioned earlier: the whole time when I was reading the story, I was asking why? What is the purpose of their connection? What I feel, is that this story is some sort of chopped up lite version of another story where important bits that make the story coherent are missing, which is such as shame because I really like the villain characters, small traces of the what is good and what is evil debate, the exploration of the involvement of politics and the military in superpowers etc. It had such great potential.

This review is a lot longer than my usual review and took much much longer than I thought it would to write. I may be slightly harsh in my comments on certain stories, and I’m certainly biased towards some stories than others, so I’ll say again here that I enjoyed this anthology and would encourage anybody who would like to read short stories about lesbian villains to pick this up.

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aion-rsa · 7 years

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INTERVIEW: Dark Horse Crowns The Once and Future Queen of Camelot

With their now-concluded ongoing Monkeybrain Comics series “Amelia Cole,” the team of D.J. Kirkbride, Adam P. Knave and Nick Brokenshire literally took a wrench to the concept of magic and mysticism, in the process creating one of the publisher’s most beloved and acclaimed comics. This year, however, the team have reformed for a new series – and this time they’re swinging from the hilt, sword in hand.

“The Once and Future Queen” is a re-imagining of the legend of King Arthur, but sees the sword in the stone pulled by Rani Arturus, a teenage girl living in the modern day who travels to England to participate in a chess tournament. Having somehow ended up pulling out a mythical sword which entitles her to reign as Queen, Rani has to deal not only with all that brings – but also the arrival of Merlin, magic, and a whole mess of trouble coming directly for her.

As pencilled by Brokenshire, this looks to be a classically madcap take on the legend of Arthur. CBR spoke with the creative team about everything they have planned for their new series at Dark Horse. Also, we spoke about “Silverhawks” for some reason.

Cover art for “The Once and Future Queen” #1

CBR: How important was it for you all to be involved in this one – to have Frank, Nick, Adam and D.J. all working together again?

Nick Brokenshire: I feel that we communicate very easily. And after having played in the all ages sandbox, I wanted to see what we as a team could do with something a bit meatier. Also, I was ready to try some different things with the art and figured the lads would trust me enough to do it… I hoped they would, and they did.

D.J. Kirkbride: Nick, Adam, and I learned so much over the course of 30 issues of “Amelia Cole,” not only in terms of working together, but of making comics in general. Adam and I have also done several books with Frank, together and separately, and we knew he’d work well with Nick, too. This is our dream team here.

Adam P. Knave: We all work with other people, and other teams and we enjoy that too, but you get a certain creative matrix going and you can just lean in. It’s like, remember that old cartoon “Silverhawks?” You had all those dudes who were fighting crime in space and what-not, all silvery and decked out with fancy wings that somehow worked in space and all. And sure, they could fight crime apart, but when they’re together, well then you really get a sense of “Man you guys need to stop coordinating your outfits quite so much and why does that one guy have a bandana and cowboy hat anyway?” it’s like that with us. Except in all the ways it’s different.

Kirkbride: The bandana and cowboy hat is applicable to our team, too, though. It’s about style, Adam.

Knave: Oh, right, good point.

How does the collaborative process work between you after your long run on “Amelia Cole”? Do you find that you can almost work shorthand with one another now?

Brokenshire: It feels very similar but with wondrous added sparkle of our editor, Shantel LaRocque, keeping us straight and giving course correction. It’s very pleasant, from my perspective. I like working with the chaps and they pity me enough to give me stories to draw.

Kirkbride: It’s great to have her editorial perspective. She’s very involved in an encouraging way. In terms of the writing, Adam and I always want to impress Nick first, so if he’s excited to draw, we know we’ve got something potentially good on our hands. We live to impress that guy. Maybe it’s his cool Scottish accent…and the fact that he can write, too…and draw…and, c’mon, he’s an awesome musician, too! All that talent in one person is unfair, frankly. Oh, speaking of, Frank also chimes in with his take on some of the story elements, which has been invaluable. He saved our butts recently.

Knave: Look at these guys giving you smart simple answers. This is why they keep making me answer last, Steve. This. Is. Why. Because I’ll give you the truth they fear! They fear as if Mon*Star and his mob were after them. No, wait, never mind. But yeah, we admit, there is a level of shorthand that creeps in on any group working together for long enough. We all built these characters together so D.J. and I can type “Rani’s mad” and Nick knows what that means from a body language perspective and how it shapes a panel in ways we might have to use twenty words with for someone else.

We also just have a huge amount of trust in each other at this point. So there can be notes telling Nick to go a bit nuts, and we’ll leave him alone for certain scenes and when we get ultra-specific he trusts we’re not doing it to annoy him and he can see the reasons behind our choices. Also knowing Nick’s approach so well lets us craft pages specifically to him in even deeper ways.

If “Amelia Cole” was for all-ages, then “The Once and Future Queen” aims at telling a YA story. What is it that you find so interesting about writing into that demographic, and changing up your approach and audience?

Knave: One of my biggest personal challenges on “Amelia Cole” was the language use. I curse. A lot. Like, too much, probably. It’s an issue. Frankly, I wasn’t raised right. So I had to rein all that in super tight for years. Now we can use some good ol’ light PG-13 cussin’ and it makes me happy. But also thematically, pushing this up to YA from all-ages allows us to explore more mature themes, in the real sense, not just “Adam like to curse” sense. It’s not that the story is darker (though it can be at times, a lot of them) but there is a different perspective at play here, a more adult one. You’ll see it in relationships, in actions, and choices made.

Kirkbride: When we were starting “Amelia Cole”, our goal was to make a truly “all-ages” comic. Not a “kid’s” book. They’re often awesome, but kids seem to always want to read up. We wanted it to be like a kid watching Star Wars with her folks, for example. Everyone’s enjoying it, not just the youngster. For “The Once and Future Queen”, one of our goals was to age up in part so that Nick could stretch his artistic style while Adam and I challenged ourselves to dig into some deeper themes, but also in the hopes that if a reader grew up a little reading “Amelia Cole” over its four year run, they’d be ready to follow us onto something that skewed a little older.

And now Adam gets to use type the “s-word” and whatnot in scripts. It makes him happy, and that’s all any of us really want. That, and pizza.

What was it that first interested you all in taking Arthurian mythology and redefining it within the series?

Knave: I have always wanted to work on an Arthurian story. I had outlines of novels dealing with it, I read a bunch of it, it’s a capital-T Thing for me. And yet, until D.J. mentioned going there for the story I hadn’t thought of doing it with this approach. Which thrills my cold, dead, heart.

Brokenshire: For me, Arthurian Legend is in my creative DNA. Also The Brokenshire’s have a deep connection to Cornwall (among other places) so it’s very groovy for me to tell this tale. I read “Le Morte D’Arthur” when I was 16 and Boorman’s “Excalibur” is in my top 10 movies.

Kirkbride: Everyone knows of the legend, even if it’s in a tangential sense. Even if you’ve never read the stories or T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King”, there’s Disney’s “The Sword in the Stone” and the fact that “Star Trek” has a very round table feel to it. It’s in our collective consciousness.

How do you keep that connection to old-time myth but take a story like this into a contemporary, modern-day setting?

Brokenshire: I grew up in a very magical place in Scotland called The Hill Of Fare in Aberdeenshire, where fairies and goblins and all manner of creatures dwell. I would walk through the forest with my dog in he middle of the night singing and inventing nonsense. I draw upon that part of my life. As for the contemporary, I personally have a few people in mind when I draw these characters and I try to infuse as much of their personality into what I’m doing. Hopefully that gives them some contemporary realism… I hope it does!

Knave: Myths are about people. We’re still people. The point of the myths, a lot of what they dealt with, are still relevant just in new and strange ways. So the trick was always to find the threads and pull them forward, and then snap them off, twist and tangle them and get something new out of them. Something that wasn’t “Silverhawks,” because this could have been a “Silverhawks” book if we did everything totally differently and… good lord why can’t I stop thinking about that dumb old TV show today? I apologize, on behalf of myself and my ancestors. And Lt. Colonel Bluegrass.

“Silverhawks” aside for the moment, who is Rani, your lead character? What kind of a person is she, and what are her goals, ambitions, motivations?

Kirkbride: Rani’s a pretty serious and very intelligent person. She has an analytical mind and goes with her gut less than, say, Amelia Cole. Amelia was super “leap before looking,” especially at the start of the series. Rani likes to plan. We join her at a crossroads in her life as she pursues her passion for chess without a clear goal of what to do for her future. She’s taking a break before college, though that’s presumably the next step. Then we throw a spanner in the works with all this crazy Excalibur stuff, and while it’s terrifying and totally unexpected, it might help her reach her true potential.

Knave: And it might not, to be honest. Life is never a straight line and it’s always messy, and Rani always loved structure and held it close. Shifting isn’t easy for any of us, and with the pressure she’s under, well, it doesn’t always end well.

Kirkbride: So, to recap, we’re probably ruining Rani’s fictional life.

Knave: Which is, in fact, our job. Right? Not to say she doesn’t get big happy bits, too. She does.

There’s a chess motif running through the series, with Rani herself a chess prodigy. Is this story all about the Queen, then, or can we expect a full ensemble piece here?

Knave: This is a big ensemble piece with a central character to pin it in place. Like the original Star Trek, really. Sure Kirk was the main character and the story often revolved around him, but Spock and McCoy, and the whole bridge crew really, were fully formed characters and had important things to do and say, pushing story in different directions that if it had been The Captain Kirk show. The Queen might call the shots, for the most part, but any good leader knows you listen to the people around you and make them count. Even a pawn can be crucial, after all.

Kirkbride: I’m more of a checkers guy, so whatever Adam said is probably right. King me.

How did you approach the design of the characters? Nick, were you working from any particular inspiration or theme, here?

Brokenshire: I made it my aim to make these characters visually far more realistic than the Amelia Cole characters. Like I said, I do have certain people in mind as basic character templates for everyone. No-one famous, just people I know. Rani is something of an amalgam. The other major thing that I’ve done is create very specific wardrobes for the characters and I will literally don their clothes (or the closest thing I can find) and take reference pictures for almost every panel. I’ve paid attention to inventing body movements and postures that are particular to each character. I have folders full of me posing as the characters trying to find their style.

Clothes-wise, we decided early on that Rani would be something of a punk-rock girl so that’s quite a specific style. Gwen is a funny mixture, she’s totally badass but likes to wear powder blue and pink. Lance is a maker of things so he’s practical in his attire. The Fae, they are a mix of traditional Fairy, Uruk Hai and something more contemporary. I think about this stuff non-stop. I could go on!

Kirkbride: Nick’s attention to detail here really shows. Sometimes it’s tough in comics to tell characters apart if they don’t have fancy costumes (Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent used to be visually pretty interchangeable, for instance.), but Nick’s given them all unique faces and body types and poses. It makes the visual storytelling more sophisticated, and it gives Adam and me the ability to get into some more subtleties in the writing.

The creative team previously worked on “Amelia Cole”

Of course, though…. the story of Arthur is a tragedy, filled with villainy, betrayal, and torment. What sort of surprises can we expect from your story as it develops across the coming months?

Brokenshire: Jousting, Magic Rocks, Monsters, Bloodshed and a dash of “Dawson’s Creek”. Is that fair to say, boys?

Kirkbride: That sounds about right. While we’re using Arthurian Legend as a starting point, this is very much its own story. Some of the surprises and excitement will come in little twists to the familiar tropes, but it’s really its own thing. Our goal was to surprise each other when creating it. Part of the fun of doing an indie book with a publisher as encouraging as Dark Horse and an editor as open as Shantel is that no idea is too “out there”–at least not yet. She hasn’t read the script for issue 5 yet.

Knave: All I can really say is, to people who are familiar with our work on “Amelia Cole” – we planted stuff in issue one that didn’t pay off until the last arc. We build deep, and leave a ton of space to shift around our own plans and still land where we mean to. So there’s a lot going on under the surface here.

Issue #1 of “The Once and Future Queen” arrives March 1, 2017.

The post INTERVIEW: Dark Horse Crowns The Once and Future Queen of Camelot appeared first on CBR.com.

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