ApexKiller

Twitter thread by Gail Simone, [HERE]

Okay, for various deliberate reasons, I have not read nearly as many comics in 2017 as I normally do. And this week, I started reading a ton of comics. And I have stuff to say.

Now, if you are an aspiring comics creator, I hope you will listen. Ignore this advice if you like, but at least consider it first.

First, for the love of god, remember that the reader does not know what is inside your head. That is your only job, to convey your message.

Pro or newbie, shame on you if you don’t name your characters on panel if we are supposed to recognise them later.

Over and over, I am reading comics where (t)he main character is not named or even introduced. The story just starts and we are meant to guess.

This is just aggressively bad storytelling, unless there is some specific reason. If you are writing the Man With No Name, fine. But that’s mostly not the case.

Second, learn what an establishing shot is, and what it accomplishes. Over and over, I was not told where the characters are.

An establishing shot establishes not just location, but tone. One lonesome farm in the snowy emptiness can convey pages of dialogue and exposition. Better, too.

Third, when did we forget that it’s important to know what a character wants? I don’t need a character’s D&D stats, I need to know what they NEED. What drives them.

Over and over, I am seeing stories where a threat arises, attacks the hero, the hero fights back, bang, continued next issue.

If I read your story and don’t know what the character’s motive is, that’s on the writer.

Additionally, learn what a reveal is. In almost any story worth a damn, someone’s keeping a secret, regardless of genre. Secrets are storytelling nitro.

Finally, I am still reading comics where the characters all have similar speech pattern, a sort of affected one-liner-spouting verbal malaise.

It’s bad enough if TWO characters are indistinguishable in their speech, it’s bad. If all of them are, start over, you have hit a tree in the road.

That’s it, just some things to consider. A lot of potentially very interesting comics out there are missing a little lesson in the basics.

Just think it over, I guarantee you you will be happier with the result.

Allow me to preface this…

I AM PROCHOICE!

But this comic is NOT Pro-Life. Judy gives honest and correct respinces from her prochoice stand, and nick gives honest and legitimate responces to pro-life.

This comic is about THE DISCUSSION!!!! IT IS NOT A PROLIFE COMIC! IT IS A COMIC ABOUT THE DISCUSSION!

These two have less of an discussion and more of a shouting match, with neither side's point holding much weight. Both Nick and Judy just come off as uncompromising, unlikable, selfish, and just all around awful people.

Not only that but this comic seems to imply that if a couple, no matter how much they've been through together, have completely different viewpoints on a matter like this that they should just split up.

This comic ends with Nick leaving Judy because they can't see eye to eye on this. That's their first and last discussion about the matter. Is that what we're suppose to take from this? That if a long standing couple have a serious discussion about pro-life versus pro-choice or just any kind of serious discussion and they can't agree the first time around then one should leave the other on the spot? Not have a few more conversations about it before reaching that kind of conclusion?

In court that day, the judge asked the boy, “Are you afraid?” No, the boy said.

Pipes says the judge seemed surprised, and asked, “Why not?”

Chief’s thesis was that a child who has been abused by an adult can benefit psychologically from the presence of even more intimidating adults that they know are on their side. “When we tell a child they don’t have to be afraid, they believe us,” Arizona biker Pipes told azcentral.com. “When we tell them we will be there for them, they believe us.” ( Article)

They go on runs to protect the child if they feel even the slightest threatened no matter where. If the child needs them to go on vacation with them, they do. Bikers come from across the nation to watch over and take shifts for these kids. And the best part is once you’re adopted into this family as a BACA kid, you’re always one. Even when you’re 40 and the perp gets released from jail, they’ll come meet with you and find your best options for avoiding the person and maintaining the life you’ve built for yourself. Once a BACA child, always a BACA child. In Florida, there’s 100% rate for identifying the perp based on the child’s testimony. Why? Because BACA stands with the child and supports the child so they feel comfortable enough to point out their attacker.

1000 FOLLOWERS!!!!

ALRIGHT LET’S DO THIS SHIT! IT’S CONTEST TIME!

THERE’S GONNA BE WHOLE LOTTA ART FOR A WHOLE LOTTA PEOPLE!

To enter this contest you have to reblog this post and you must be a follower! Simple as that!

Winners will be randomly picked!

Digital Ink

10 Winners

Digital Flat Color

5 winners

Digital Full Drawing

1 winner

Traditional Sketch 

2 winners

Traditional Ink

1 Winner

Traditional Colored Drawing 

1 winner

SO IN TOTAL THERE WILL BE 20 WINNERS!

the story of how anakin skywalker fell to the dark side when there was so much good in him could’ve been amazing, and the changes needed to make it so aren’t even that big. give me an anakin that’s actually damaged from being a slave his whole life; an anakin that latches onto padme not because she is “beautiful” but because of her compassion, strengths and beliefs; give me obi wan meeting anakin w/ his master and actually bonding with him, agreeing about his potential even if he doesn’t quite believe an old prophecy; give me padme’s simmering fury and protectiveness over a child who fell into slavery which she thinks is disgusting but she can’t concentrate on that right now because her whole planet comes first. give me an anakin that gets to react to the jedi’s fears of him; give me the child that goes from being a slave to being sworn to an order that’s strict and tells him no; don’t fear, don’t form bonds, be better. give me anakin and obi wan bonding scenes. give me palpatine actually being subtle in his manipulations. have padme and anakin keep interacting through the years and anakin falls into slow love with her without realizing, because she is justice and compassion and strength.

 you can keep so many scenes if you just tweak them. so many plot points still work with some background added to it. give me anakin asking if he could see (/free) his mother and beind denied by the council because jedis can’t have connections, anakin, you can’t be attached. have obi wan reluctantly agree that they can’t do it. have him still have the dreams and still protect padme, but when she catches him dreaming and he tells her the truth (that he dreams of his mother in trouble and he’s not supposed to see her but he can’t stop thinking of her, how he abandoned her to that life–) and she’s the one who says they should go to her. because padme never believed in slavery and never wanted to leave her behind in the first place but she had bigger problems then, and maybe she feels guilty about that. have anakin realize he loves her then. and she’s watched him grow and watched him toy the line but she’s not there yet, and he goes to his mother and fails, that’s fine, that’s fine, but he doesn’t kill the entire camp. he’s not there yet. he does it by the code, but then he comes back to padme and he tells her the truth; he wanted them dead. he wanted them all dead. he wanted to kill them with his own hands. she tells him the same thing– that anger is human, that it’s normal to feel– and he says he is a jedi. he must be better. and then he admits; he still wants them dead. he is unsatisfied with the justice he got. he’s scared of how much he wants them dead. isn’t he a jedi? isn’t he good? and padme tells him he is so good. he is allowed to have feelings, she tells him. anger and fear don’t lead to bad things by themselves, letting them control you does. he tells her he loves her and she sees the man he could be and says they can’t. but she wants to, too. 

give me a padme that is just as annoyed at the jedi way as she is any other injustice in the world.give me an anakin that struggles with his feelings and not being allowed to feel them. give me an obi wan that doesn’t understand that struggle and those feelings because he’s never hated, not that much, but anakin has hated his whole life. he has been angry and afraid. give me a palpatine that says things just like padme does; that validates anakin when he has feelings he doesn’t want to confess to obi wan because he is just that much on the side of the jedi order that tells him to just not. give me a obi wan that has failed a friend; a brother, for real, not by convenience of absence but by failing to question his teachings. give me an audience who can sympathize with anakin and can almost fall for palpatine too because he isn’t so obvious the jedis should’ve seen him coming ages ago.

give me an obi wan that listens to count dooku’s warnings and feels torn, not because he doubts the ways of the jedi, but because he’s seen what those ways can do. give me padme and anakin in a slow burn love, with no wedding but with careful stolen moments through time where they let themselves feel, where they both love each other’s passion. where they are both a bit afraid of what it could all mean. give me a yoda that feels actual fucking shame when he realizes his speeches about fear and attachments and feelings is what drove anakin right to palpatine’s waiting treacherous words. give me a yoda with a reason to exile himself and to not want to tell luke the truth; not because the truth is hard for luke or might tempt him, but because the truth is hard for YODA to admit to.

anakin falling to the dark side out of fear of being powerless to save padme– to save his family– just like he failed to save his mother works, tbh. but  give me a padme who doesn’t die in childbirth because she “couldn’t go on”, like she didn’t have two kids, like she wouldn’t have fought tooth and nail to bring back democracy and been the first to lead the rebellion? give me a padme that doesn’t die in childbirth and raises leia for a few years so her fucking comments about her mom makes sense. give me bonding scenes between anakin and people, and superimpose that with the jedis telling him no. you can’t. 

have your audience start to agree with the dark side too, and then when they’re starting to think darth vader was fully justified pull the rug out from under them. have him go too far. it doesn’t have to be child murder, because that’s easy. that’s cheap. but have him be the direct cause of the jedi falling so easily; betraying them from afar because he knew all these people and their weaknesses and he is giving them away for one person. have obi wan and him fight with legitimate feelings; “what you’re doing is wrong” and darth vader asks why? when he has control. it’ll be better. he’ll fix it. and obi wan realizes he failed him because anakin still deals in absolutes, still deals in how slavery hit him; the people who can do anything are the ones with power. the ones who own things. is it greed? it is fear and anger and hate, and that turns to greed, sometimes. sure. 

give me a vader who drives away padme but searches for her because he wants her and his child; doesn’t she understand? she doesn’t, she can’t, she has never wanted one person to rule all. give me a padme who, like luke, still believes in anakin skywalker but who never gets the chance to say it because the rebellion is snuffed out. give me a padme who fakes losing her child so that anakin doesn’t know he has two because she can’t while he is vader. while he is under palpatine. give me a padme who dies fighting, tired and sad but still ultimately hoping for anakin to come back. to be good.

give me an anakin who thinks he’s lost everything and who hates the emperor for it but who’s given up; who lets himself be everyone’s fucking darth lapdog because what is the point? until he realizes luke is alive and then, then he thinks, he has something again. something worth fighting for. 

give me a story where i understand and nearly sympathize with anakin skywalker, where i feel for obi wan’s loss of his pupil, where i see the good luke saw in his dad from the get go but also what caused him to be so twisted. give me the start of the empire as slow and methodical, dark and the result of both sides of the force pushing and pulling instead of weird political moves that makes no sense. where i understand why padme fell in love with him and believed in him. where the jedi order meant well but was so obviously fucked up they were doomed from the start. 

Last week, a barrier that cotained toxic fluids broke in Brazil taking these fluids to one of the most important rivers we have here (Rio Doce). It formed a toxic mud and took over cities nearby, destroying them and killing people. This mud contains metals such as mercury, lead, barium, copper, among others. It’s said there is mud enough to fulfill 20 thousand olympic pools. This river is now officially dead, forever. The whole ecosystem of the area is destroyed. Animals are dead and some species might be extint. The mud keeps going through the river’s course and it’s said it’s gonna get to the seacost, also destroying that area. Another barrier is starting to break and it is 5 times bigger than the first one, which means the damage will be bigger. Cities nearby, such as Governador Valadares, ran out of water system. Mariana, another city, is also going through a hard time. Other cities are said to be destroyed forever. The biggest problem of all is that Brazilian media won’t talk about it. This huge ambiental crime is under Vale’s responsability. Vale is a multinational private mining corporation and they have a huge power over media. Regular brazilian citizenships have no idea of how huge the situation is, as the media makes it seem like it was just a little accident. People are dying, people are suffering, a whole ecossystem is dead. This is the largest ambiental accident in the history of Brazil. We need help to show the world what our media don’t want our people to know.

Apple Bloomers Episode 12: Darkening Ascent by atryl

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This is a movie about a kid who leaves her birth family.

Not a kid who find that they have a secret lineage or something that allows them to find their ‘true family’ - this is a movie about a kid whose true birth family is made up of bad people. So she gets out. And that is played as the right thing to do. She isn’t punished for it or made to feel bad about ‘abandoning her family’. There isn’t an underlying ‘but they’re your family and you have to love them’ or ‘they’re your family and they love you even if they don’t show it well or do hurtful things’ message of the kind that I see OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER in media. Matilda gets out and lives happily ever after because of it.