Not a common cover

Wish I could have done this one better, because it's awesome (and also cheating - genderflipping Witchblade is like shooting paralyzed ducks with a homing rocket launcher) but it's got way too much detail and stuff so I just preserved some general moody darkness.

I can't actually remember ever seeing a graphic novel with this kind of cover. Yaoi can possibly have scantily clad guys in compromising positions on the cover, but not quite like this actually, even if that's how they end up in the pages. And for a woman to get this kind of position? No boob, hip or neck exposure and with a serious, dark expression... also notice her lips being closed, while the dude (you might not see this because it's so small) has his scandalously slightly open.

Looking closely also made me notice other things. Like that her blade-tentacle-censor thingy is drawn as if it's hands grabbing her boobs. And I have no idea what the snake has to do with anything. The dude (whose name is Darkness) actually doesn't have *that* crazy shoulders to be a comic book dude. Lately I've realized that to make men look even impossibly more buff, they draw their heads smaller relative to their bodies which, when you start thinking about it, makes them look more silly than cool actually - just like I think Witchblade and all her boob-job friends look silly. I'm not saying all artists draw either gender that way however, there are plenty doing a fine job of applying cool comic style without drinking too deep from the more-is-better-fountain and falling off the tower of exaggeration in their drunken stupor.

Special Flowers - A Superhero Gender Switch

I happened upon some "girl" versions of male superheroes, and was stuck by how extremely over the top sexual they were. To put Batman or Wolverine in that type of porn-poses would certainly raise a few eyebrows, but apparently females do not suffer the same respect. So I looked around and found that, yes, fanart is indeed extremely exaggerated most of the time, but the actual comics are more sensible (it seems even most comic book artists figure you can't fight Magneto in stilettos). This being of course sensible comics, I can't mention Witchblade or Fathom in this context and keep a straight face. (Just google it if you don't know.)

Well, so I decided to make my own gender-switch fanart, but with two conditions:
1) keep the original costume as true as possible.
2) keep the original pose as true as possible.

So here's my little transexual darlings, with the originals down below (since blogger still refuses to put images next to each other... -.-) The coloring is very lazy because, well, I'm lazy.

I'm not happy about Wonder Man, and I apologize to the world for Batwoman but that's his pose I can't by rules change it. On the other hand I'm in love with Spider Man (I loved that suit already on Boobs McBoobpants, so on a pretty boy... mmm), and Superwoman is clearly over-awesoming the original. And who knew that when you turned Invisible Woman male she turned into her brother? A clever eye will see that the only difference between Spider-Man and his female counterpart is boobs, but it's because of his pose ok! There's no curves to work with and no muscles to shrink. And it's "superwoman" not supergirl and "batwoman" not batgirl -.- I'd like to see "Batboy" and "Iron Boy" try to be taken seriously. Invisible Woman is, in many ways, the first lady of Marvel (or superhero comics) in her whole-body suits and "woman" not "girl" name. Which they of course quickly remedied in the movies.

I have failed my conditions on one single point, I'm sure you saw; I kept the Hulk shirtless and even ventured for nipples, but I couldn't put the male Supergirl in a skirt. The point was actually not to make fun of it or whine about sexism, but to see that many of them still make sense (like the gender-switched Superman and Mr. Fantastic) and that women not dressed in skimpy outfits and posing like porn stars are also cool and awesome - as well as the reverse! Special flowers like Elektro also deserve some space - look at that Hand assassin, isn't he some sexy shit? The male Storm turned into a manga character... but this is one of my least favorite Storm costumes.

Don't hold your breaths, but there will probably be more, I have some epic pictures of said Witchblade I'd love to switcharoo and even more agressively manly Batman (I know, how is it possible?!?).

PS. If you're dissatisfied with the average boob size in this post, I would let you know that I suck at drawing girls, and suck even more at drawing boobs, so you should be glad you have boobs to look at at all. I'm rather sure I got progressively better the more of them I drew though, mostly because for every n:th girl, I had to redraw them inifinity - n times.

Comic Opinions: Deadpool #13-22

Deadpool: X marks the spot and Deadpool: Monkey Business collects Deadpool #13-22, and are the first steps of my "let's be a serious comic geek and not a leech and start buying good shit" campaign. For safety I will not divulge how I got to read #1-12. It's a personal campaign, of course, worry not, I'm not going to go righteous bitch on you.

I loved the earlier Deadpool series by Priest and Simone, especially the one that connected with the Agent X series, and I was at first unconvinced by the new writer mr. Daniel Way and the "inner voices" (Deadpool has two more or less consistent "extra selves" that he has conversations with). Although I found Deadpool's role in Secret Invasion (a big, global "Event" in Marvel Universe) to be brilliant and in a way properly introducing him into the big boy game by throwing him in with Norman Osborn, anyone can shoot a pony once, and the inner voices deal was still bothering me.

I've always felt that the difficulty in writing Deadpool has been to balance his good-vs-evil. Insanity implies randomness, and randomness doesn't know good or evil; it hardly knows consequence. How to get a coherent character with interesting storylines with that in mind? It's a deadly balance act.

I'd say that Way has now proven his pony-shooting abilities to me with these two collections. X Marks The Spot has Deadpool out to become a pirate, and through a series of events has him helping rather than hurting the islands he set out to rob. What follows next is what impressed me most; a sort of looking-glass peek into a darker part of Deadpool that no one else seems to have paid any attention; namely, immortality itself could serve to drive a man insane, so what will a man do with it who is already insane? This philosophical bout with himself brings him to the fever-dazed conclusion that he'd rather be a hero, and he makes an attempt at becoming an X-Man. The story from there is a lot more complex than one first realizes, and the balance act can be summed up with one of the lines from the book: "He may be insane, but I'm starting to think he may not be crazy".

Monkey Business picks the story right up as Deadpool continues on to New York to try and soak up some hero-moves from Spider-Man, and suddenly finds himself on the best seat of the house as Spider-Man has to protect him from a mercenary-hunting monkey hitman. Again, Deadpool proves himself as much a hallucinating lunatic as a man with a plan, turning Spider-Man's life upside down in the process. The writing impressed me still, in this case because it is skillfully focused on Deadpool. What Spider-Man thinks about the whole thing can most often only be read from what he says and does, so as a reader I get the feeling of watching the frustrated hero rub his forehead through a camera stuck on Deadpool's suit, that bounces a little as Deadpool chuckles to himself.

The art is good in the two "main" stories here, the X-Men and Spider-Man stories. As for the pirate story as well as a short extra as Deadpool leaves New York, they have more looney cartooney or caricature style drawings. I can appreciate different styles of drawing, I think, but especially in the case of Deadpool I'm for a more "realistic" style because although he himself is like an mad bugs bunny, he is real in the Marvel Universe, he is in fact brutally real as many who have tasted his bullets have had to realize. A conversation with him should perhaps never be taken literally, but he as a force, an immortal man with amazing weapon skills, should always be taken very, very seriously, and that is the tragedy and the comedy. A cartooney style marginalizes the violence he does upon others, but that is a part of what makes the character complex and fascinating. Reading Deadpool should always bring along a tint of disgust, a wince where you go "what the HELL man" as he cracks a joke and a skull at the same time; just seeing him as a funny guy does not embrace all that the character is.

I always feel like I walk away from reading Deadpool having learned something subtle and difficult to pinpoint, which is also part of the charm. As when Deadpool spared Killbrew's life in the earlier series, I now await Way's followup with hesitant enthusiasm. Deadpool's chase for heroism allows a bit of creative ballet on the delicate balance of good and evil, now I can only cross my fingers and hope Way doesn't overstep and break a toe.

Spider-Man goes, as usual, for the anvil-to-the-head kind of life lessons: "It's always easy being what you are... what's hard is being what you want to be."

McNinja meets Deadpool

The man who made Dr. McNinja is now writing Deadpool for Marvel. Need I say more? No. No I don't.

I think it might be time for me to buy another comic book. This one, for example. I so wish I had more money so I could do it more often! I'd want a whole library, a wall of comics! I'd want to go places and argue about whether the art of issue#233 was better than #232, I'd want to sit in my sea of Exiles and New Avengers and Gambit and Deadpool and discuss the development of Spider-Man or the validity of animations versus the comic book originals. I'd want to befriend the dude who whined at me when we first met for saying "comic book" and not "graphic novel", and beat the guy who prefers DC over Marvel in, well, I'm tempted to say Yu-Gi-Oh. If I'd been born in the US and, more importantly, had gotten the proper encouragement, you could've made an utter comic book geek out of me, Marvel.

Actually, the artist from kukuburi that I also read is/has also worked on Deadpool. Perhaps the webcomics I have found are of like-minded people? That wouldn't be beyond logic.

Here's the article, and here's Dr.McNinja.

Splash!

I keep wanting to draw comics, just short ones, but still. Some stories make better print, and some make better drawings, and some I'd suppose make better film. Since my writing has come to a standstill and I can't seem to conjure up the strength to push it forward, now my brain is yelling at me about comics and animation. Something that, if I don't have time to write, I certainly don't have time for :P

I feel like a magicarp splashing around on land :< so much potential, so little time (before I suffocate and die from not being in the water :P)

Recently read a discussion about pokémon, where they talked about the "fainting" concept. Most people, it appeared, like I, never paid any attention to the word "faint" and saw it more like they died and were resurrected. I for one always thought of it as "aw crap I killed it" when you knock out a wild one and thus can't capture it. (It kinda makes no sense that because you knocked it out, you now can't keep it... O.o Do they get teleported away into crystal stasis whenever they lose consciousness? Ooooh nobody will get that reference xD the geekiness!) I imagine they called it fainting because it's a kids' game, but if all the kids imagine them dying anyway... Think people are a bit too careful with these things; it's electronic imaginary monsters, ffs.

OMIGOD cutest thing evar!

Look at that kid xD Biggest moment of his life! And omg wouldn't it be O.O I'm not even half the Green Lantern nerd I am other comic dudes, but that made me H.O.T xD


Also, if this is true... omg. Give it me (tm Nallenon).

Last Minute Girl

Masquerade party tomorrow evening and I don't even know what I'm going to dress up as. The theme is "heroes". Apparantly, however, most female heroes have a requirement to meet about how much skin to show, most preferably legs, at least the kind I generally think of. Or they have spray-on latex clothes a la Underworld. I'm ruined by popular culture, perhaps. Florence Nightingale or Mother Theresa? I wanted an Asian person anyway, more importantly than gender actually, but I can't seem to think of anything that's good, recognizable and easy to make a costume of. My superhero name should be Last Minute Girl.

What I have decided is that I will someday dress up as this flashy lady, although in her alternative clothes that can't be found on the internets because they don't meet the required skin shown, where she actually has pants, but that will have to be a later project. She's badass enough to not be the usual fare of Power Girl cheerleaders, and she has purple hair and a cool mark that will require face paint so wheee. And not to underestimate - she's a ninja so she doesn't wear heels!!! She's not actually Asian, in the original version, but... well... Marvel Universe is a marvellous thing, and if you want that further explained, and see how many times this girl has died and been rescurrected, look here.

It's also hard to shake the idea I had to cosplay Buttercup from the PowerPuff Girls. Anyone want to be my Blossom and Bubbles? XD You could do so much fun with their clothes and a bit of imagination.

Hmm..... Kim Possible?

Monsters and heroes

I've been trying my hand at drawing monsters. I'm terribly bad at it because a) my usual style is too "clean" for it, b) I'm too careful with shadowing and c) I have a hard time thinking in "fear", be it to draw monsters or write horror. But I'm getting there. Anyway, the internets quickly took me from monsters, to wondering why there are so few pictures of Marrow online. This is her: She is one of my absolute favorite superhero-women ever. Mostly because she gets to tap into that place where women seldome are allowed; in being feral without being sexy, possessing bloodthirst without grace, and most of all getting to be ugly! Her powers, although perhaps not the most scientifically valid among modern-made superheroes, take her where they never dared to take Rogue; where they ruin her appearance, make her outwardly the monster that other mutants hide within.

This subject quickly took me to my male most favorite "superhero" (more like... supermoron) of all time; Deadpool. The general Deadpool-fanbase seem to have accepted Ryan Reynolds.I'm inclined to agree. It's something about the way he moves, which is almost the most important since the proper Deadpool have no face to speak of. Now I want him to go where other superhero-movies have backed off: where we get to see a full transfer of character to the movie screen and not just the parts twelve-year-olds with minds ruined by mainstream hollywood movies would possibly manage to comprehend after two hours. The depth, the dirt, the gleefully grinning faces of the masses every time a mutant takes a blow. The right shadowing.

Ryan Reynolds have, oddly, also been cast as Green Arrow. While I can see why, I think it's a very stupid idea of him to agree to this because if he's going to put his face on one of these characters, he should do it on only one :P but money is money I suppose. Also I suppose and hope Deadpool won't have a face at all. So whatever.

This subject took me to casting of marvel characters, or comic characters in general. This page had lots I agreed with, and a few I didn't. I do not, for example, think Anne Hathaway should be the Scarlet Witch, in fact I don't think she belongs anywhere near a real superhero. She can be Lois Lane if she wants.

The most difficult to cast, ever, for me, is Gambit. I don't know why, it should be simple, there are those I care more about or have more specific characteristics. But there are so many and yet no one that fits as Gambit. The list I linked had Jonathan Rhys Meyers, which must be the most controversial suggestion I've heard so far. He'd have to put on some weight, but sure, he's a viable option. What do you guys think? This is Gambit:
There's many different artist versions of course, but this artist is the one I like best for both him and Wolverine. So who would play him?
Taylor Kitsch?
Josh Halloway?
or more controversially
Vincent Cassel?
Jonathan Rhys Meyers?
To be honest I hate all these alternatives. For some reason.

*melts away into the song* Gawd I forget between the times, but Nickelback is and will always be IT for me. I'm going to start rating singers by how much they sound like Chad Kroeger, because that's really what I do in my head anyway.

*longing for when I get moved in properly so I can bring all my comic books*

Public letter to Disney

Dear Disney.

I apologize for all the crap I've spewed on you for sucking in comparison to Squaresoft, being sexist pigs with no imagination, being hopeless at making games and being solely focused on making money rather than produce good stories, and a number of other failures.

In respect of the chokehold you now have on my childhood idols and standards of heroism, I will not make violent, vulgar, exaggerated threats, nor ironic, bitter and bitchy jokes. I lay down my sword and my spear at your feet and I kneel in horror at the damage you could do to my fragile inner child. I will beg. That you in aquiring Marvel, and all that it stands for, do not make it into the regular mainstream, mindless, kiddy crap you usually produce in the name of income. That you do not stand in the way of what could be great, violent, gory movies of characters that are indeed great, violent and gory. That you do not reduce such imminent figures as Thor or Wolverine or Deadpool to the shallow pastell-colored idiots that frequent your productions.

I beg of those at Marvel to not give in to such attempts at brainwashing, should this my humble request be denied.

Together with the giants of Marvel we are standing at the threshold to a dawning new age, and it is you, Disney, who will decide whether it will be an age of conquest and glory or a heart-tearing, pathetic disaster.

I await your answer with greatest humility.

// Not a fan of yours, but clearly of Marvel

News and Previews

Dunno what this is, or where it came from, but if someone does make a game from it, I think I'd like it.

Also, another thing to distract me from studying; BlankIt (a webcomic). Great art and not too much text, so quick to read and fun. And not that I'm a pedantic browser of the gigantic webcomic world, but I haven't really seen anything like it this far. And have you noticed that reading the comments for webcomics are as fun (and somethimes more fun) than reading the comic in itself? Not this one though. Despite the infinite lolness of internet voyeurs, the comic does manage to one-up it most of the time.

Why we have pets:

From a webcomic called xkcd which I encourage anyone to read who:

• finds math at least remotedly enjoying
• have patience with that not every strip is hilarious
• find bizarre nerdiness more fun than implying that women are somehow lesser beings
• believe in cats, hats and your mom (and your sister)
  

Carnege

Forgot to tell about the Tattoo Expo (but Nightflyer filled you in a little, I guess?). Fun. So many ideas, so little time. And so little space! I don't want to cover my entire body in tattoos. =P But I came to think of that if could be a good way to hide my skin-thing. I could totally imagine tattooing the entire left arm, shoulder to wrist, which would cover it up. I thought about piercing my ear, finally (two holes in the right ear, don't want in both) but didn't feel like it right then. I will definitively get a tattoo eventually, but I'll need to pile up some gold first; my treasury is in a sad state.

The evening ended with Iron Man, a most superb movie, though his lovidoviness with Pepper irritated me. Can Hollywood produce one single movie without having to add love to the story? The old "the hero gets the girl", and the old "hero saves girl" really pulled a lot from my final opinion of it.

The Expo all in all resulted in two things: web addresses and phonenumbers to very good artists in case I, in the future, would have the cash to go get a tattoo by a real skilled artist. And this:


This is Carnege. He's a psychopathic alien-infested bad guy in Spider-Man. (Everybody say: "Hello Carnege!")

I saw a photo of him being tattooed to some guy's arm (this exact picture) and I thought... he could make a real good tattoo. I love tattoos that look as if the image is a part of the body, either a pattern following natural lines or something crawling out from underneath the skin. Carnege's loopy symbiot would be perfect for it, while maintaining my nerd-factor. I think it could get really good. ^^ Only problem is to get someone to sketch the final image out; I can't really do this symbiot-thing very well.

I have candy, chips, and a new game. Cheerios!

All the Wiser

Hockeywise: Damn. But it was Canada. What else was there to believe.

Partywise: Ball at school yesterday. Had whiskey for the first time. (Equally disgusting as all other alcohol. Kinda' hard to motivate myself to drink when it tastes like date expired cold medicin.)

Otherwise: I'm reading the first issues of X-Men. Laughing at the cheesyness. Smiling at the cuteness. Being amused by the obvious connections to the politics at the time.

Personalitywise: I did make some interesting realizations from talking too much after the ball. For one that it's people's concern that make me hide in a corner when I'm all down for the count. If I could just be ignored, invisible, I mean completely gone and unnoticed, then I think it wouldn't be a problem. I get this voice inside whining about "what do people think about you when you do this", knowing how much people misunderstand me, and everyone. So if I knew no one thought anything about me, then I'd be fine.
Look at the world's most reknown dramas. They all build on misunderstandings and slight mistakes. Remembering this, I think you can understand why I'd rather hide in a corner. The small things just overwhelm me by numbers. On a regular day I manage to ignore this. On a bad day, not so well.

See Me

I do want to be seen. Of course I do. I blog because I want to keep contact with my friends, because I want a diary I keep somewhat true to, but also - to exist. I am on the internet, therefore I am. I don't like making noise when it's silent around me, so I only talk on the phone because there's no other good option. I can't handle compliments. I only look people in the eye when I decide I have to to come across as natural and confident. Thus this, writing, words, pictures, the distance between me and my work is crucial.

There is a difference between self-confidence and self-worth. I am fairly confident in that I draw okay, and I write well. I can go do embarrassing errands here and there, I can speak my opinion, I can play the game. But I don't ever expect anyone to have any interest in me, as such, only my work, my thoughts. I am the factory, my work is the product, and consumers are only interested in products, see?

But, is this something I have to change? I'm not sure. I was browsing through DeviantArt and Tomgeeks.com, and I was thinking, I should make a comic. Why? Because poems and pictures are nice, but novels and comics last in peoples' minds. That's why novels are my main aim; because you get to infect people for a longer time, feed off their interest and capture their hearts for hours and days rather than minutes and seconds. You get longer time to affect them, thus better chance to affect them more. But there is no way I have time to go to school, read, do homework, write, draw, do comics, hang out with friends, keep contact with old friends, play videogames, play computer games, stay updated on everything, keep my family happy, visist my grandparents, shop, eat and sleep. I would need three separate lifetimes for that to happen. So I have to make choices. I have to decide the course of my life. And I've been pushing it forward for weeks and months and years, because it's probably the most important choice of my life.

I refuse to be the geek girl in a corner reading and adoring other people's work, gossiping about the last X-Men movie. I want to be in that shit, I want to be a part of the process, I want to change the world. But to do that, I have to lose half of myself first. Which half?

Service for Friends

So, I was actually on MSN today *gasp* and Eva talked to me *gaspgasp* (why? more pics of Cloud-lookalike <3) and she showed me Jeff Thomas, and mentioned something that she said would do well as a comic, and when I did it as a comic as a present for her she made me put it up here because she didn't want to make her christmas calendar look unpretty, so darn it, she made me. Here it is. Happy together-day, Anton and Madde.

(This is, like, copyright breaking or something... =P)

I feel a straaaeeengee mooood comin' a-over me!

I'm in a strange mood today. Maybe because I was praised by a teacher. Maybe because mom woke me up at 8 this morning when I have no lessons and I was up until 3 last night. Maybe because I got my 1gb ram. Maybe because I discovered I can play God of War on "hard". Maybe because I got to watch the handsome mr. Jacob eat today (he makes eating estethically beautiful... O_O I know!) and he is so single again now. Maybe because I found the great hall empty and dark and could dance around and pretend mr. Jacob would come in and talk to me. Maybe because I won chocolate. Maybe, simply, because I am a cat and cats sometimes go crazy. To better illustrate the essence of my state of mind, I have made a comic:

Nuff said.