A miscellany of book-based folderol

and everyone is posting their 4th of july manis

except this year its very few american flags and red white and blue and stars.

and a LOT of pond scum inspiration

Ok I put this on FB but it can't hurt to put here too. We need help with Fantine!

Dog location: Northeast Georgia, just outside metro Atlanta and near the NC/TN/SC borders. TL;DR: Really sweet stray dog has ringworm; current foster is immune compromised; need someone to help by housing her for the duration of her treatment. Only need a short-term foster (approximately a month is the estimate for ringworm treatment? up to six weeks, I guess) and we can help find a permanent placement for her when her treatment is complete.

Details: Fantine is a stray dog we have been fostering for about the last month, she has a wonderful temperament (very sweet and trusting with people, quite resilient, friendly to all the dogs she has met) and is about a year and a half old. She has had all her vaccines and flea/tick/heartworm treatment and was spayed almost three weeks ago. and is healing up from it really well.

She's also ringworm positive, and I have some serious immune-related health conditions. The vet who diagnosed her was worried about her staying in the house with me even though she has been in quarantined in the laundry room and we are being very cautious about biosecurity.

Pip unfortunately does not have a working immune system, and as someone who dealt with a dog with ringworm and an immunodeficiency myself, I know what a nightmare that can be. Pip has always gone above and beyond for its dogs, but it cannot be expected to sacrifice its health in this case, although it already has done so much!

If any of my followers are able to foster Fantine, please reach out to Pip!

And let's not forget about

So, here's the exterior. Nice and simple and elegant!! Very straightforward!

Then, there's the inside. I was like 'hmmm, well, they met when they were working at a video game store together. And they still game a lot together and it's important to them. I know, I'll draw this thing like an illuminated manuscript!!'

Reader, this is where I lost control of the situation. This is where we come to the fact that I'll have to reblog this multiple times just to attach all the relevant images. I came up with eleven "main" images, eleven simple verso images so people wouldn't sign the wrong spot by mistake, two inhabited initials for the couple, and one demo page not included in the book directly explaining the concept for how the pages were laid out (spot for name + spot for message). I finished that last page uhhhh thursday. For a saturday wedding.

Before I get any deeper, i have to give MASSIVE props to the dobie draws 'codex pokemonus' illuminated manuscript zine. I highly recommend checking that link out, because it's a delight. I bought this thing, ohh... I'm not even sure. At LEAST half a decade ago. When i was gathering all my references and resources for this project, this was unquestionably the most helpful one. The influence is most obvious in the venusaur vines the pokemon pages, but it was truly, genuinely a LIFESAVER when it came to references for how hands and feet and faces could be drawn for little Creatures, and I'm so grateful. I would also like to state for the record that i learned medieval notation specifically to transcribe the jigglypuff song and that may be the detail that delights me most in this whole project

And since i have one spare image slot left, I'll also throw in one of my verso images, as a teaser while i line up my next reblog

No. I am boo boo the fool, most of these designs were so simple they were plain impossible for my sleep deprived brain to draw 😂 So some of these draw from the games directly, and some are more from the cabinet or box art, whatever i could find with a visual identity to latch on to.

So, for roll call purposes here, in order on the tumblr post, we've got: qbert, pitfall (featuring a beautiful pixel rope), frogger, major havoc, centipede, pac-man (both man and ghost), space invaders, berserk, yar's revenge, annnnnd et!

I think pitfall was what sold me on this idea conceptually, but et is my absolute favorite of the bunch. Look at him. Look at my wonderful hideous son. One thing i learned on this project is that if you're trying to get an illuminated manuscript vibe and it just isn't landing, try drawing the eyes Wrong, and that's very likely to do the trick

All of these pages were SO fun. Browsing the kirby wiki for the funnest little Creachurs was a delight. Working on mother brain was one of my favorite parts. The sonic page is my favorite concept out of the whole lot, using the loop as a frame for the message portion. And of course, once I was reminded of the animal crossing wedding couple, they HAD to feature prominently 😂

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE. My brother and his now-wife play world of warcraft together. He got her into it, and I think that's a cruel thing to do to your partner, but what do i know. And a few of their guildmates were even invited to the wedding! So a couple months back, i asked them for images of their characters, "for reasons." The reasons were to draw them each inhabited initials for the title page of the book :3c

(my brother, at the wedding: 'i thought you just wanted them for inspiration!!!' me, cackling: 'FOOL. when have i ever practiced self-restraint when it comes to crafts?????’)

And then!!!! In chronological order, this is where i paused to draw the eleven verso images in a fever haze and actually printed the book and made it. Fun story, my printer started misprinting images in the middle of this and I had to make a trip to my parents' place and use their printer to get the actual book pages. But once it was assembled and drying (it was a k118, also, which i don't think i mentioned), I staggered back to my tablet and drew a demo page for how i envisioned the signings. My little treat to myself is that it features haggard versions of me, including skeleton me in the corner.

And it all worked! It all worked out really well!! I'm SO glad its over, and I have two sets of lotr that I made concurrently as gifts that i need to scrape together a post for. But this came together better than I could have hoped, and I have learned important lessons about how long art like this takes me 🤣 But I've also learned how to do these pseudo-illuminated pages and the term 'inhabited initial'! I definitely, DEFINITELY plan to use that knowledge for much goofier and more frivolous purposes as soon as I rest up a bit. This was a much bigger project than I expected, but I'm SO happy with it

I thought it would be fun to kick off Fantine week by highlighting some of the incredible Fantine fics that already exist! @pilferingapples already made a similar post in 2024 which you should definitely check out so this post will mostly be covering fic published recently and some others that weren't on their list!

Les Mis x Tcomc edition.

...And then I got to thinking about their mutual Moral Journey language (throwing money at people they think deserve it) . So , consider: Dantes sees Valjean, who famously dresses as a pauper when he's giving money, being a swell guy and raising his daughter alone in that isolated house on the Rue Plumet. He goes into his Justice: Reward mode and starts trying to give Valjean money. Valjean, of course, does not need or want more surprise money, he's still in moral debt from the first windfall. The more he humbly refuses, the more determined Dantes becomes to make him a Very Rich Man (not knowing he is already Pretty Dang Rich) . At last, all his other schemes being thwarted , Dantes breaks into Valjean's house to leave money. Valjean catches Dantes mid-break-in and assumes he's come to rob the place. This unleashes Valjean's unskippable trauma cutscene and he lectures Dantes on the dangers and horrors of prison before giving him a big chunk of money and warning him to choose a better life. Dantes realizes Valjean is also a former convict-- and yet still such a kind man! Now Valjean has fallen afoul of his obsession with Correcting the Scales of Justice by giving good things to good people! He can't just give this guy some money, he's got to hook him up with a better life! a business! public office! social acclaim! ...Which Valjean is desperate to avoid.

Hijinks Ensue with Dantes trying to reward Valjean, Valjean trying to avoid being Rewarded AND trying to convince Dantes to reform , both mens' efforts escalating to truly absurd levels.