FanArt_ink.Legend

MTGinktober whispers in hushed tones into Day 15, "Legend," starring Jon Finkel and Crossbow Steve!

This prompt coulda been a wildcard to draw whatever, since I normally do draw legends, but that felt too easy, so instead I went with depicting a legend of the game, Jon Finkel. If I had to choose a absolute #1, I'd have to go with my fellow USer over the German Juggernaut, Kai Budde, but they're interchangeably untouchable. I do feel Jon Finkel gets an edge by being so good over such a long period of time, though--he's like 3x Hall-of-Fame at this point. Anyway, it's super impressive to me how he can crush it across decades, though Kai of course recently Top 8ed the Arena PT.

Fun Facts: It's oddly reassuring how utterly stressed out and bogged down he appears while playing, as if to affirm to the world that Magic is still hard for him, regardless of how easy he makes it look, so I definitely wanted to draw him in that mildly stressed mood. Anyway, I knew I wanted him to appear larger than life, which made me think of Crossbow Steve futiley trying to take down a behemoth--though while drawing this, it looks like "Steve" is actually a "Steph."

Easter Eggs: The background features a little thundercloud to reference Jon Finkel's propensity to play Storm (and also to reference his brilliance, as if being struck with a bright idea), and the moody clouds are for how he always looks like the weight of the world is on him while playing, as well as to complement the castle, which comes from his original version of Shadowmage Infiltrator.

Not normal,

Reuxben

FanArt_ink.Snow

MTGinktober drifts softly into Day 11, "Snow," starring Alexander The Great Hayne of frosty Canada!

This was another quite last-minute concept based on current events, this one in response to Alexander Hayne's recent, incredibly open post. I've been a fan since his astounding debut on Walking the Planes, and he always struck me as just the happiest dude, to the point where I wondered what it must be like to be so generally happy--notice in his very first words in the episode, his introduction to the world, he's delivering an effortless joke.

He always, always seemed so content and a font of positivity, that I'd always look for him in Walking the Planes or Paul Cheon video logs and stuff because he invariably just had this phenomenal capacity to brighten the mood of any video he was in. I'd even re-watch his and Jacob Wilson's famous Hidestugu's Second Rite video whenever I felt down. So I hope he's safely in a positive space, knows he's respected and admired around the world, and that he's certainly been a positive influence on me, at least.

Fun Facts: I myself love cold weather, especially when you can see your breath, so I wanted to make sure to have him similarly chilling in this illustration, which is also a reference to the impetus of this piece, his writing--his speech. So hopefully in the same way exhaling in cold weather comforts me, I hope his words comforted anyone who needed to read them.

Easter Eggs: The upper background is based on Into the North, as a nod to Mr. Hayne's native Canada, and the lower background is of course based on the famous Easter Island-style Snow-Covered Island. His shirt design is naturally Face to Face gear, which felt doubly great as the best way to support someone--heart to heart, you could say.

Please take care out there.

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Reuxben

FanArt_GGPowerStranger

Man, just heard about the GP New Jersey champion, Max Williams, not getting any hype after such a huge accomplishment--and not even getting his trophy on time!--and felt inspired to sketch him thanks to his outrageous story and even more outre victory photos.

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Reuxben

FanArt_ink.Guarded

MTGinktober sleeves up Day 13, "Guarded," starring Black Lotus and this lucky duck!

This was a pretty easy one to concept; I latched onto the idea of doing a salute to that famous clip almost immediately.

The only possible competition woulda been something about the Beta Draft where they were wearing white gloves, but this video is just so much more visceral.

Fun Facts: The oldest cards I have are like from Fourth Edition, which look all Alpha-y, but are generally unremarkable. A classmate who played back in the day but who had no interest in Magic anymore gifted them to me. Also, as I described earlier, I really don't like a lot of the older art and hate when people laud it over clearly superior newer art, or write off more modern art as if it's inherently inferior to Alpha era art.

Easter Eggs: You can spot a couple Beta Islands (ugly/bland) in the background with a Mountain ending the line-up in the far back, but you can also see a Samite Healer (nice) as well as a Lightning Bolt peeking out beneath it (I'm actually not much of a Chris Rush fan, but Bolt still looks pretty nice). The The Dark box in the background has a The Fallen on it. The middle box, presumably Beta, has a Serra Angel on it (ugly).

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FanArt_ink.Cruel

MTGinktober tortures us into Day 11, "Cruel," starring Spike, Tournament Grinder missing like there's no tomorrow (for you)!

This was a really fun (er...therapeutic?) one, and I mighta went overboard. I'm trying to keep these a little more manageable, but there were just too many things to cover inspired by this prompt.

Fun Facts: This image captures a ton of things I personally find grueling as a player and as a person. First, I hate the trend of people beginning every sentence with the word "so." Just skip it! You don't have to say it! My gosh. It accomplishes nothing. You don't need to preface your speech with a tacit request for permission to speak, especially when we are flat-out waiting to hear you speak, my dear opponent. And don't get me started on people who (unironically) subscribe to linguistic fads--they are neither sick, tight, nor rufus!

Next is the "Still Had All Deez" player who has to show you how much they can overkill you, as if it weren't bad enough they beat you in the first place. And that's not even mentioning the utter jank they beat you with! But more on the cards themselves in the Easter Eggs section. I also hate when players use those stupid, useless, tiny, dinky dice that come in those 3x3x97 mini-dice towers! Use real dice for your life if you must, but ideally just use a lifepad like a decent human being so we can both cross-reference each other and retrace our history in case of dispute.

Even further, man, oh, man, do I hate when a player is in range of getting burned out, but they just refuse to die, meanwhile they comeback and ultimately win. Spike here is so ridiculously dead to like, ANY topdeck burn or direct damage or if you ever have one more creature than her on board, you name it, but of course you never seem to draw that last crucial, meager closer--you've got like 20 outs in your deck and yet you're straight John Avoning it turn after turn while your opponent claws back through sheer dumb luck. Fun fun fun.

Another thing I can't stand is opponents using these stupid, hideous, indecipherable "extra bling" cards, especially when I'm playing something original and basically budget. It's not bad enough that they netdeck and buy everything online rather than incrementally build their collection over Drafts and stuff, but they also have to go for the garish, special, special editions like these whacked-out Masterpieces. Just beat me with the regular $50 card, please.

And then, while this is more a personal thing, I hate the trend of stupid, lazy tattoos. I don't really like tattoos in general, but the especially meaningless, nothing ones are super annoying. You're committing a drawing to your body forever and it's as deep and meaningful as random fractals or whatever? See also uninspired died hair, particularly those bland streak deals...it's so cliche at this point, how is that still considered stylish?

I also have to mention, the smugness of blue players is atrocious enough, but then when you lose to them? Put me out of my misery, please. Like, dude, enough with the counters and card draw, can you just play something so we can actually have some back-and-forth rather than just an elaborate game of mutual solitaire? And you have in the meantime, and the most infuriating part of this whole thing--not only is your opponent playing (overly-tightly stacked!) lands-in-freaking-front, she's also playing cards UPSIDE DOWN!! How absolutely more insulting and condescending can you get to your opponent? Well, she could always tap 45 degrees counterclockwise. Oh good, she is. Perfect.

Some sunshine, though--I don't have a problem with mismatched cards, and I actually hate how people hate on mismatched cards! I myself like to singleton my basic lands as much as possible, in fact, because I like seeing all my favorite lands, as that little consolation can help keep your spirits up during a flood. Additionally, playmats can be quite helpful, but also absolutely terrible, such as the kind here with the raised edges! I can't tell you how frustrating it is to have to move cards around on this style of mat when you're getting cards jammed on the ridges while lining up cards in combat.

Ah. It was kind of pleasant venting like that, cramming all these things I can't stand in one blood-boiling image.

Easter Eggs: The cards in hand are Cruel Ultimatum (Archenemy: Nicol Bolas) in front, From the Vault: 20 at center (shout out to the frustrating, tournament-disqualifying curling that FTVs are infamous for), and Shards of Alara in the back. Please note that while I adore and respect Todd Lockwood, I really can't stand this really wacky dragon-slap art, and I definitely can't stand Ralph Horsley's original, gnarlier version.

The poster in the back is from that extremely cheesy and goofy "Here I Rule" campaign, which we've discussed already. Down on the board, starting on the left, stuck in exile (which is frustratingly just tucked under the graveyard, though thankfully it's at least tapped to murkily differentiate the overlapped zones) is Spell Pierce (Amonkhet Invocation, natch). In the grave is the Jace (yuck enough already, I know) Signature Spellbook Negate.

Continuing on, still left to right, but where the lands should be are Invocations The Scarab Gobi, which degraded many a game into a horrendously tedious and stupid grind (though it sure was sweet beating them when, say, they're wasting time stubbornly recasting it over and over as you repeatedly kill and swing turn after turn). Spike has the game won with this idiot--note the 4/4 token she has in play. Oh, did you miss it? That's because it's a freaking QUARTER instead of anything vaguely resembling something even quasi-rectangular. Who knows what insane creature (likely of yours) it is, but all that matters is that it's about to kill you.

But, no, that's not good enough, she also just assembled the present Standard Splinter Twin combo of Famished Vampire, Sorcerer's Wand, and Squire's Devotion. The game is basically over and yet she still has to put the enchantment on top of the artifact rather than the creature. I will say, though, I loved this combo on MTG Arena, but the point is that losing to these hard-lock, uninteractive combos (note she's got two blue sources up--I did forget to include a counter in hand, but just presume it's perfectly tucked behind an Ultimatum, cuz that's plenty tilting, too). I myself have experienced the joy of opening on a perfect hand and winning on turn four with this combo, and it's indeed possible to win on any given turn after you untap with the vampire in play, regardless of what you're opponent's doing, so decks like this are supremely annoying (unless I'm playing them...). But winning two-fold like this is still not good enough for Spike. Cuz why would it?

No, she's also got a Teferi, Hero of Dominaria Mythic Edition poised to ultimate and stick around after losing the eight loyalty beads! Dive everywhere and yet she uses those stupid beads that feel like nails on chalkboard if they ever hit the table or rub against each other! And of course, she has to use that rage-inducing limited edition Teferi that was an utter a disaster to acquire for people who wanted them, since, as expected, they sold out immediately and are nigh impossible for non-US people to get. That said, Teferi was in my Vampire Wand deck on Arena, since blue-white control is an excellent guild for a Voltron-y, Splinter-Twin-style deck, but what elevates this into an entirely irksome scenario is that these are all in the same incongruous deck as that stupid blue-black Gobi and the ridiculously heavy-Grixis-colored Ultimatum! So, to sum up, you just lost three times over on board, plus thrice more from tri-Ultimatum in hand, all originating from a four-color nonsense deck.

Closing out the card section, the row closest to us are the useless lands that we ordinarily have basically no need to see moment-to-moment and yet are presented more immediately than the nonland permanents she has that do impact us and that we have to be keenly aware of every single turn. But, we couldn't even just have the courtesy of OG Ravnica Russian foils, they have to all be those jarring Zendikar Expeditions--that is, Steam Vents, Watery Grave, and Hallowed Fountain. The frame looks so bizarre to this day, but on top of that, the shockland Masterpices are all of that notably super tangential art direction that only super-approximately depicts what the cardname would indicate.

And now the grand finale: Spike is playing on a stupid, Indestructible Aura playmat. HAR HAR it's called "Indestructible Aura" but it's neither! BUT THE ART IS SO METAL, MAN!!!! Ugh. Shut up with that. The art is ugly and dumb and shouldn't be in Magic! Enough! I hate how people categorically glorify the original early-era artwork when a lot of it was just flat-out not stellar. They were hiring artists straight out of a local art college because they didn't have a lot of money to start out; it's not illegal to admit the art was not real-deal pro-caliber, even for the time and that it has not aged well. And that doesn't mean the weaker early artists haven't grown into absolutely fantastic artists today that can school the newer guns! But stop holding all early art as universally snap-better than modern Magic art (and don't take that as all modern art is snap-better itself--this MTGinktober is a salute to some of the worst in Playstation-1-style modern Magic art).

Sigh. Ok. Done. Breathe...just breathe...it's over now.

Not normal,

Reuxben

FanArt_BootCamp

It's Ellen Brock, Novel Editor and Booxamillion, her ghostly, drill-sergeanty cohort!

I love to listen to podcasts, interviews, and other spoken-word style audio while I draw, and I've particularly enjoyed marathoning Ellen Brock's "Novel Bootcamp" series, where she gives all kinds of excellent tips on writing, which is great for novel writers, of course, but also comics writers--and creative writers of any sort, for that matter. I happened to be working on a comic story at the time I discovered her channel, so her advice (Boot Camp and beyond) was fantastic for making sure the story we're cooking up wasn't falling into any pitfalls, cliches, or other snags.

One thing that sets her vastly apart, though, is that unlike a ton of other "tips and tricks" style YouTube advisors, she actually has a polished, non-gimmicky presentation style. Some presenters, even super big ones, still have those tell-tale signs of someone "reading cue cards," often because they kind of overact while trying to sound like they're speaking naturally or off the top of their head and giving improvised advice. But ironically, their overzealous, overly familiar styles way too often make it quite evident they're indeed reading from a script. Ellen Brock, though, speaks with the preparedness, pacing, and poise of a teacher, so I'm never taken out of her presentation by that "bad acting" octopus that entangles so many others on YouTube. The ease of her speech makes running her videos back-to-back-to-back a snap, rather than an exercise in having to trudge through a less enjoyable speaker's talks for their nuggets of wisdom.

Anyway, on to more about this illustration. Though I usually just listen to her videos in the background, when I actually watched them I noticed she didn't really have any custom graphics, so as a sort of design challenge--and because I wanted to salute her "Novel Boot Camp" series--I thought it'd be neat to draw her as an actual boot camp instructor! Super clever, I know! So I figured she could display whatever topic she wanted on the little screen, like an actual boot camp mission briefing. The comic I was writing at the time was science fiction, hence the dummy text.

I also wanted to include a playful mascot, so I included the little ghost guy from the hilarious "Ghost Reader" shirt she sports sometimes. For her own shirt, I went with another cool design she wears, but that also feels somewhat "military" or physical-challenge-y, namely that sweet "Varsity Reading" shirt! To toughen them up, I gave them both some sporty eye black and EB some camo pants.

Easter Eggs: I kinda made up the medals and stuff, but I included a Purple Heart, since I know there's an actual medal with that name and it kind of added a little cuteness to our spooky little ghost pal. His hat features books instead of stars, as does EB's helmet. The books were colored as a nod to the original Pokemon generation's version colors, so RGBY, just because I've been thinking about Pokemon a lot lately. I loved researching the different, actual military training materials, like the sandbag barrier with the brick and wire topper, and what I finally learned are called "Czech hedgehogs" (those X-shaped metal structures). Including the legal pad was kind of an inside joke with myself because I hate writing on those things! And the giant typewriter felt like a nice, symbolic inclusion--though, I guess some people still use them!

Fun Facts: This illustration was a combo of cel-shading and painting, but here's where the illustration all started out from, with just some rough, desert-y paints. I originally wanted to really go to town with almost all yellows, but one gradient map later, a more traditional, blue sky felt like the best way to go. And speaking of best ways to go, you'd best go way over to Ellen Brock's channel and learn a thing or two, or at least brush up on just about every topic under the scorching desert sun.

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Reuxben

SLS_ComeyMemomey

Choke at the clutch moment, it's Sick Little Suicide #34, "Comey Memomey," in which we let our darlings touch the stove rather than stop them.

This piece was originally prompted by former FBI Director James Comey's impending memo congressional testimony, and this meme-style comic is what I envisioned the gag to look like--inspired by those "You mess with the" [funny way to refer to an animal] you get the [funny way to refer to something dangerous]" meme. Like, "You mess with the Hoppo, you get the choppo," and it's a picture of a rabbit holding an axe or something.

So this is a pretty old concept, but I finally finished it off in time for James Comey's appearance on Stephen Colbert, so it's not totally untimely.

I was glad in the interview that Stephen Colbert brought up that supremely odd reaction his crowd had to the breaking news of James Comey being fired as FBI director. I remember watching the show at that time and thinking, Why are these idiots cheering his getting fired? Are they so knee-jerk locked into cheering anything negative happening to people in this iteration of the government without consideration to the specific person being fired? Weren't they paying attention to what that all meant, the clear attempt at obstruction of justice and the comically blatant parallels to Watergate? I doubt they were cheering because this meant we were accelerating to the impeachment phase.

Anyway, I detested James Comey's undeniable negative effect on the election. I believe Nate Silver has discussed the statistical implications James Comey's public re-opening of the Hillary Clinton email investigation had on the election in comparison to how little the public re-closing did to offset the crucial tank in her support.

However, I believe James Comey to be honest, earnest, and trying to do the right thing, and it is important that he, as a prominent (former?!) Republican, is speaking out on the realities of the rot and menace of the Republican party. We need more people to step back from that party and describe it as it has become evident: a dangerous, deluded operation of accumulating power for power's sake.

I was also pleased from the Stephen Colbert interview to find that his book isn't just polite schoolyard jabs at that orange fraud, and that that snippy section is apparently only about six lines in the book, while the remainder is a description of leadership. And as Dave Chapelle had brilliantly articulated in his Equanimity Netflix special, relating the current state of the US to its state of racial understanding upon seeing Emmett Till's mangled corpse, I liked how James Comey held that while we're in an undeniably tumultuous spot right now, there is reasonable hope that these trials will deliver us into a greater state of being once this disgusting cartoon is out of office. And you know what, I'm also fine with him blaming the voters in part. It's true that he never would have won if enough people simply did not vote for him, so yeah, in an ideal world, only those who voted for him would have to suffer through his obviously foreseen disastrous administration. But we all have to hang together, unfortunately. More fortunately, those who didn't vote for him have newfound enthusiasm for justice and civic responsibility for seeing the rotten fruits of apathy and cynicism.

Indeed, more young people are being activated into caring about civic duty, and I myself have every confidence things are going to start turning around even as soon as this very November, it is beyond my imagination that things won't improve. We just need to keep up the enthusiasm and morale, and we can right this ship. I know we can.

So, I appreciate the complicated figure James Comey is: he is not a straight-up hero or villain. He made a monumental lapse in judgment in breaking with FBI policy to disclose the Hillary email investigation, not to mention scolding her upon closing the case. But he is also clearly a person of integrity trying to do what's right. Before the interview, I had thought he should have at least disclosed both candidates were under investigation, but I now understand that that could have jeopardized the orange investigation, and all I want is to see that disgusting piece of garbage rot in prison with all his myriad cronies. If suffering through this present turmoil is the cost, and the additional benefit is a stronger country of responsible, knowledgeable voters, than let Comey what may.

Not normal,

Reuxben

SLS_Power

A quick illustration inspired by Emma Gonzalez of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for International Women's Day.
The Parkland students have been a huge inspiration. It really feels like this is a moment of legitimate change. I've felt for a while that it kind of comes down to having to wait for corrupt, evil people in power inexorably to die out--the momentum as it exists is that they will simply go extinct while more rational people gradually grow to outnumber them as a matter of course, I have no doubt over the long term, that's how it'll go eventually. But the Parklanders represent the other, more active side of the equation: newer generations are not only going to displace the bastions of evil over time, but they now will actively vie to dethrone and defang these sinister elements, accelerating their extinction. What I love about Japan is that you can walk to 7-11 at 4am and not give it a second thought aside from wondering if it's cold enough to bring a hat. That should be what it's like in the US. That is freedom. But we can't get there as long as merchants of death call the tune. Fortunately, the chorus of kids from Parkland sound like the slapper we've been waiting for.

In all seriousness, this moment feels different because it appears to be the point of a perfect confluence of crucial factors that seem poised to manifest in actual change, but that have never all concurrently been present before--I think of this as a Malcolm Gladwell-style Outliers moment, that just by chance, these factors at the right time and place will yield results. There are at least five factors I feel that are contributing to this unabashedly optimistic outlook from this ordinarily cautiously pessimistic optimist.

First, never before have the victims of the tragedy been on the cusp of--or have just freshly attained--the right to vote. Further, as exemplified by Emma Gonzalez's famous speech, this generation has grown up seeing the blatant nonsense (and dangerous cost) of today's horrific state of dialogue and are prepared to call it out in frank terms because they risk death not to. But it's not simply that they can speak out in their immediate community. For the first time, we have a group of victims who themselves --not parents, relatives, or even themselves years later after the immediacy of their tragedy has faded from the public memory)--they themselves are fully capable of reaching out to people at large across the country and even around the world, for that matter, via their fluent ability to take their fight online.

Second, the party in power has blatantly been outed incontrovertibly as various flavors of cartoonishly unacceptable. We have seen they are hypocritical: the party of "moral values" has backed and defended adulterers, spousal abusers, child abusers, etc. They have similarly demonstrated refusal to act in good faith: see (R-KY) Senator Mitch McConnell indignantly acting as if he was observing regular order on his "healthcare" and tax scam bills, when in objective reality he was satisfying the exact accusations he levied against the plain period of study, debate, and compromise provided in preparing Obamacare. Along these lines, we've seen other acts in bald-faced bad faith, such as silencing legitimate questioning during various hearings (see the multiple, outrageous shooshes to D-CA Senator Kamala Harris, for instance), and the absolutely disgraceful runaround R-CA Representative Devin Nunes has engaged in out of ostensible "concern" for truth. These are just a few outrages in this vein of dis-ingenuousness rotting the party.

Similarly (because hypocrisy seems to be the underlying factor in all of this) the oath-defying party has also proven itself to be plainly, dangerously beholden to entities other than the country and the Constitution, and are thus incapable of genuine leadership: they decried deficits while a black guy was in office but then gleefully plunged the government even deeper into debt for the appeasement of their donors: see public comments, such as "adult in the room" (R-SC) Senator Lindsey Graham's admonition that "financial contributions will stop" if they don't pass their tax scam, or R-NY Chris Collins relaying a donor's instructions that they pass the bill or "don't ever call me again."

And most abhorrently, the party has demonstrated an inability to insist on fair play in order to win elections solely on the strength of their ideas: see them going so far as to endeavor to impeach supreme court judges in Pennsylvania for ruling to void severely gerrymandered Republican-favoring districts. Perhaps more grotesquely, see also the party's insistence on disenfranchising people on a massive scale, particular minorities because they know they can't win if everything's fair and square and people just get to vote. I've written about this before, but denying the vote and claiming you're representing the will of the people is like stacking your opponent's deck in Magic so they get mana screwed, and then you start acting like you're Jon Finkel. I'm not even discussing their constant covering for that orange fraud's clear negligence (at the minimum) during his campaign, which will all come out eventually, I'm positive.

For these reasons and (much) more, this party feels like it's only sustained itself on "angle shooting" and "running the cheats," as we say in Magic. I recall in the Hillary Clinton interview on Pod Save America, she vocalized what I had suspected for a while ever since I've been paying closer attention to politics: there's a good chance that the Republican party might have died out by now if it hadn't been able to prolong itself with all the above techniques and more, since it seems there really is no substantial need for what they profess, and no general beneficiaries of their self-destructive policies. I've always loved history, just not necessarily politics, but believe it or not, it hasn't always been D vs. R (in fact, one of our earliest parties was called the "Democratic-Republicans!")...parties indeed emerge, grow, and die throughout our history, it's not radical or unprecedented--as national moods shift, parties come and go. Presently, it feels like for the most part, one party is generally (obviously not everyone) trying to do what it can to help the country improve itself while the other is primarily just out to hurt people and benefit itself, perhaps in that order, but who even really knows? It should be that the parties have different methods of the same end goal: improving the country. But one party is just checked-out and even worse, is actively bringing harm to us. That party should be shunned and let to die out so we can have a new party that will at the bare minimum be interested in national improvement and capable of checking the other party in good faith. My frustrations with that party is what I gather is also taking hold nationally, when people see what they are doing so brazenly and publicly and can no longer justify their (in)actions.

The third factor as to why now is different is related to the second one: because the party in power has submitted so consistently and helplessly to a dangerous lobbying group, we've seen these tragedies at a disgusting regularity and at a soul-crushing reach. After seeing all venues from every level of sacredness from outdoor concert venues to within church walls, and victims from all walks of life, including a baseball field of Republican congresspeople, and of course children who were just barely learning how to write the alphabet, there is a feeling that the need for gun reform is simply no longer by any strain of logic able to be hand-waved or shrugged away.

Fourth, and perhaps the most all-encompassing factor as to why now is different: we are in a climate of finally pushing back in general at the systemic abuses that hoarders of power have been subjecting us to. The Women's March was an inspirational, massive declaration that this disgraceful state of oppression and inequality was not a figment of anyone's imagination, or even just a small hiccough in an otherwise humming machine. The MeToo movement has been bringing justice to people abusing positions of power in professional settings. The overall recoil from the outrage and dishonor of that orange fraud taking the White House and populating it not merely with inept people, but people antithetical to their posts in so brashly public a display has made more people than ever (such as myself) cease apathy and derive direct concern with what's going on. Regardless of what particular interest people may have (interest in women's rights, healthcare, minority rights, science protection and advancement, maintenance of global power, preservation of history and prestige, the administration of justice), in general, we all have one or more stakes in paying attention and doing what we can to try to right this storied ship in stormy seas. More engagement means this disgusting blemish in our history has more people alert and questing for reform, none more obvious and popular than gun reform.

Fifth, this is all culminating right around a midterm election year while a severely unpopular party and historically loathed head reign either incompetently, dangerously, or both, and in any case, disingenuously. People were growing fed up and looking forward to midterms enough as it was, but then this happened and it feels like it's the final straw just as we enter the midterm year itself.

The momentum for gun reform has been building for years, and now given an articulate population that can vote almost immediately following their personal tragedy and who can meanwhile also reach out on a massive scale to a network of similarly interested forerunners and recently activated once-apathetics, and given a clear opponent in a dangerous and inept ruling party, and a widespread climate of yearning for positive change just as we turn the corner into midterms, this time it indeed feels different. This time it feels like these young voters will get it done. Perhaps not immediately, but in their lifetimes for sure, and perhaps even by the time they graduate college we'll be living in a comparatively different world. I can feel it. It feels so obvious. And I certainly hope some of their number chooses to move into law or politics so we can get people genuinely interested in public good in positions of power. We need it; we need them. They can do it; we can do it. We must do it.

But, you know, to be totally frank, these students also kinda bum me out! I remember growing up watching Gundam Wing in particular, and specifically thinking (as a child, no less), Wow, when I'm a teenager, I'll never change the world like they are. I'll never do great, consequential things like that. The students bring me right back to that deflating insecurity, though now I'm on the other side. I see them giving speeches and advocating for something greater than themselves, and I feel as useless as I did as a kid watching Duo Maxwell throw it down on TV. Like I missed my chance to contribute. That's what eats at me about art. There's only so much I can do to help the world. I'm not a doctor or politician, or even a teacher. How's that Yale degree treating you?

I guess we should talk a bit more about the art itself, since this is an art site after all. I did some early portrait studies during some practice recently, so I'll just include some of those in this post (it's just practice in inks, no pencils, so we let the jank flow). But about today's main illustration, it uses the female symbol in the background, but it is also presented vaguely to resemble an Ankh, the symbol of life. I see the new generation (and females in general) as the hope for life in an abstract sense after seeing the destructive nature of older generations and male-dominated leadership. In having the symbol circle the head, there's of course the connotation of a halo from classical art, too, but it also subverts the symbology of a chalk outline of a victim who fell for the ascension of a victim who survived. All positive things. The pose is reminiscent of that classic painting of JFK, though rather than a male President who fell to a gun, we're witnessing a new generation of leaders rising to challenge guns.

Not normal,

Reuxben

FanArt_TJza

Here's a portrait study I did of that rootin' tootin' Texan, TJ "IvyLeaguePunk" Smith '10, complete with an ivy-laced background and little mini 'zas!

This started as a study to test out a new pencil brush I downloaded (man, what an excellent brush it turned out to be! It's like KNKL's chalk brush, only just a little more concentrated!), but cookie-mousedly, I felt compelled to continue working on it, and today we finally gave the piece its final few moments in the oven after its stint on the back burner--it looks like I did the initial lines early last month.

I've told pretty much all the TJ stories I know from college by now--Yale, like Harry Potter, has different "houses" (or "colleges," if you are of the civilized sort), and his (Morse? Stiles? Is there a difference? [There is not.]) was on the total opposite side of campus from mine (JE)--though I generally didn't "hang out" anyway--so we didn't interact too, too much, thus I mainly knew him through shows he'd do here and there, including off campus at a venue called "The Space," which I believe is still there, but renamed and re-skinned from its former nostalgia-ridden, arcade-y vibe. Anyway, it was always fun listening to his band, The Sandy Gill Affair, play, meanwhile I'd invariably be sketching as invisibly as possible in the audience somewhere. So many wonderful memories of listening to Yale bands and disappearing into a sketchbook. I'm pretty sure I was going deep on my official My Chemical Romance sketchbook in those days! That thing rocked.

Oh! Here's some TJrivia: he did a cover of Taking Back Sunday's "Timberwolves at New Jersey" once, that was pretty neat. Taking Back Sunday holds a special place in my heart because Louder Now was the last album I bought just before Yale, so that summer and especially that auspicious, mysterious flight--my first flight ever--is always associated with that album, and consequently so is that early, blissfully chaotic period of starting life anew at Yale. So it was really cool not only to find that someone at rap-centric Yale had heard of TBS, but even further, that they would be moved to perform their stuff! Does that count as a TJ story? I'm being told it does. Nice.

Anyway, it's been neat seeing TJ plug away at his projects these days. Lately he's focusing on streaming, which is admittedly hard to catch live (and to be perfectly honest, I loathe Twitch for how lag-prone I've found it to be way too often), so I'll have to go the binge route on YouTube, assuming that's still in the works (I gather there've been some issues with YT and creatives, so who knows). He also wrapped playing a crusty cap'n type on this limited series podcast called The Dark Ones, which was pretty cool and he was one of the strongest players, to boot. I'm eager to check out more of his stuff down the road. Down the rodeo? Cowboys, Texas, etc.

Not normal,

Reuxben

SLS_Funny

Laugh yourself to death, it's Sick Little Suicide #37, "Funny," in which we finally have a reason to smile.
This comes off of news that Doug Jones (D) beat child abuser R.M. (R) for Alabama senate, the first major victory in rebuking that orange turd's ethos. This was significant because it makes the Senate quite reasonably within reach of being flippable in November, and in the meantime makes it just that much more difficult for Republicans to get their destructive policies through since they now only have the slimmest margins of majority.

Yes, he's from Alabama, but I'm hoping he doesn't cow into a quasi-Republicanism; he has to take his election as a signal to push back on that party of frauds and cons. Another gain of this election has been that it has concretely outed the Republicans as plain hypocrites on moral authority. These villains maneuvered their way to endorsing or condoning a child abuser, and only mildly stepped back when it was inconvenient for them, if those who disavowed him didn't straight up re-join him later. But those who stuck with him dared to invoke religion in his very defense in the face of his accusers. This is flatly evil. These people are monsters and need to be ripped out of Congress, the White House, and polite society at large.

This isn't even addressing how starkly unqualified the Republican was before news of his personal behavior broke: the guy lost his judgeship not once, but twice for outright defying court orders. If a math teacher insists on using math hour to teach students Shakespeare because he feels like that's his job, consequently lost his math-teaching job after the principle explicitly told him to teach math, got his math job again, and then refused to teach math and insisted on talking Shakespeare again, and then lost his math-teaching job again, that guy doesn't deserve to be a math teacher, forget about if we find out he'd been messing with kids and had gotten banned from the cafeteria because of student complaints. And we're supposed to treat that guy as a normal, viable candidate for superintendent, who would be responsible for teachers' conduct? It's a sick cartoon.

Fun Facts: Nick Animation reposted this piece (the early version of it, but still)!

Easter Eggs: The art is based on Doug Funnie's Race Canyon alter ego, but he's in Indiana Jones's famous pose...so he's Doug Jones, get it? Anyway, it's all blue cuz that's the Democrat color.

Not normal,

Reuxben

FanArt_Calt.Flarmy

I didn't realize I never posted the final to that old Florrie-inspired Torn Alter Token, so here it is at long last.

Not normal,

Reuxben