GUYS. I just read a freaking amazing batman issue, that I think everyone would enjoy, so I'm gonna try to spread the word.
It's from Batman issue #150, the main story called "Be Better". It's written by Chip Zdarsky, with pencilling by Denys Cowan and Jorge Jiménez, and was released on July 3rd, 2024.
This story is a great character piece, exploring Gotham City from the street-level perspective of somebody who actually lives there. And specifically, it's the life of a low-level thug-for-hire that actively contributes to the suck and corruption of the city.
If you're someone who doesn't know a lot of Batman lore, you know that thing that happens, how if you think about the Batman world for longer than like 5 seconds, you get a lot of practical questions about how everything works? "Okay, but like, why do people even work for these villains? Or, what's the thug employment scene like? Or, how does literally nobody know Batman's identity??" Well, all of these questions and more are explored and/or answered.
This story is a great way to expose people to Batman comics without overwhelming them. I read a lot of Batman comics, and to be honest, a lot of storylines I don't even care about, because they're just like.. action movie fight scenes. And idk about others, but to me, that stuff gets really boring really quickly, and sometimes I straight up just skip over pages of fight scenes if there's no interesting dialogue going on. The Batman stories I REALLY care about, are the ones like this, that explore the mindset, experiences, and perspectives of the characters.
It has *practically* zero required reading, or previous knowledge required. I know, literally the first page has an editor's note referencing events from a recent storyline called the Gotham War, but ignore it. Literally just ignore it, I promise you, it doesn't matter at all going forward. It also references recent stuff going on with the Penguin, but you don't really need to know that either. Stay strong, shrug your shoulders, ignore it, and just keep reading, I know you can do it.
The story will introduce you to some characters that you're not gonna recognize, and you may feel like you're supposed to know their deal, but you're not. Half of the guys introduced are new throwaway characters created just for this one comic, and you don't really need to know anything about anyone that pops up, beyond the most basic core Batman lore that everyone knows.
A big challenge for people curious about Batman comics is that it's really difficult to find an easy, accessible, current, modern, interesting entry point. And I really think this is one of them.
If you ask a Batman fan where to start reading, nine times out of ten they're gonna tell you to start with Batman #404, which is the first chapter of the Batman: Year One storyline, which is undeniably phenomenal, but it was published back in 1986, and lots of people don't want to start with a story from nearly 40 years ago. Also, it's a take on the Batman origin story. Everybody knows how Batman started. Maybe they don't want to start with an origin story, maybe they want a story set in the present, that is perfectly standalone.
So yeah, pleaseeeee everyone check this out! Not just new readers either! 10/10, amazing story.
(Also, I'm only talking about the main story, not the backup story that starts in the last quarter of the issue that's called "Brick by Brick", that one is very caught up in current lore, and is Very Scary, stay away from that one.)
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I’ve been listening to the podcast The Newest Olympian, I started it back in like July I think.
Almost every episode is 45mins to 1hr15mins, and I’ve listened to every episode all the way through up to episode 126, all on 1x speed except for eps 108-124, I was just thinking about it, and it’s crazy that I’ve listened to this guy talk about Percy Jackson for probably over 110 hours.
110 hours of listening to a guy talk on a podcast, that’s like kinda crazy.
I guess I’m writing a pro-Gabriel Picolo rant? Scroll away if you dgaf lol
Gabriel Picolo is a comic artist that’s well-known for being the creator of “casual teen titans”, which is pretty popular, and I’m pretty sure most people in the fanart/social media art/dc comics spheres have seen his art at least once before
There are people who really dislike Picolo’s teen titans art because 1: they just don’t like the style, or 2: they don’t like how he’s effected the way that casual fans view or know the characters
Note: I have some extra notes added at the bottom of the rant, if you’re invested in the teen titans you may want to read that stuff first, I just didn’t want a huge section of other details before the actual main content of this post
I’m pretty sure, from my limited knowledge, the criticism is that now a big section of teen titans fandom talk and creations are about/largely inspired by Picolo’s vision, instead of about the original/primary source/comic depictions of the teen titans
My opinion is that yes, his interpretation of the teen titans is pretty different from the comic source material, and yes he has largely changed the way casual fans know the teen titans
But! I want to point out that the contribution of non-comic fans, at least within teen titans fandom, has always been a big section of that fandom’s creation/disourse, because let’s face it, most people know about the teen titans from their shows, not the comics. And so, a large section of teen titans fandom has always been about secondary adaptations
Basically, I just want to say that blaming Picolo for a large section of teen titans fandom being different from the comics isn’t fair, and the people who blame him specifically are choosing the wrong target to be mad at. Go ahead and be annoyed when you see non-comic creations take up space in your fandom interactions, but please don’t make Picolo the fall guy
Rant over I guess? I honestly didn’t realize I had this much to say. I just really like Picolo, I’ve been following his art since before DC even signed him, back when his posts were simply fanart. Actually, I think I’ve been a fan of his since at least 2016. Wild. Anyways, thanks for listening, bye!
Note 1: I got halfway through typing this, realized that maybe this isn’t as much of a common discussion topic as I thought, tried to find some posts of people sharing their Picolo criticisms, and then didn’t find any. I swear I’ve seen these posts before, but maybe I’m at least exaggerating how much people say this, idk
Note 2: I’m not the most knowledgeable source for this discussion. Keep reading if you want, or don’t. I don’t know a lot about teen titans specifically, I just like Picolo’s art a lot and feel like sharing my thoughts
Note 3: This post is mainly about Picolo’s posted art and casual teen titans world, not his graphic novels, which I suppose are kinda the same thing but not really because his posts are way more popular
Note 4: By casual fans, I mean people who have never read/read very few comics, people who know them from show/movie adaptations, and people who know them from fandom/social media
Ok so I love Natalia Kills right? She has two albums, Trouble and Perfectionist, and I know every Trouble song and lyric front to back.
But I’ve only listened all the way through Perfectionist a few times, and there’s only a handful of songs from it that I listen to frequently, but I think that’s about to change lol.
You know that feeling where you know an album is gonna be a banger if you fully get into it, but you’re just not mentally ready to appreciate it yet?
Yeah that’s been me with Perfectionist, but idk I’m listening to it again today and every song is hitting perfectly!!
I’m ready for a new album to be added to my mental catalogue of albums to turn to when I’m ready for the Full Album Experience 👹🔥‼️
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I think the difference between these two drawings is really interesting. They’re about 10 months apart, and I think there’s a good bit of improvement 🤔
• The posing/figure of Jack in the new drawing feels a lot more natural and proportional compared to the old one, especially around the waist/legs, and the set of his shoulders/arms
• The outfit of the new drawing feels more probable, like a more probable appearance in this situation (because it is lol, this drawing is inspired by Year 1 Comic 12!). If Jack were being angsty alone in the locker room, he would probably at least have his jersey off by this point. (Even though he still has his skates on for some reason? I figure the skates add interest to the composition idk)
• The background of the old drawing has a lot more extra bits of interest, but overall I feel like they retract from the overall composition rather than improve it. It kinda feels like the objects are added onto the drawing rather than belong and exist within the drawing
• More on that, I feel like the background of the new drawing has a bit more depth and shape, like it doesn’t feel as flat as the older one
• When it comes to the style change, this is a bit more subjective and up to preferences, but for this specific idea and execution, I kinda feel like the new drawing might work better. The drawing isn’t simply a portrait, but instead it’s the composition of a singular character as the focal point within a setting, and I just feel like I was personally able to execute that idea better in the style of the new drawing
• More on the style, the old drawing’s lines and tone/shade changes are way too sharp I think, and not very smooth, and it just distracts the eye instead of welcomes it
• The faces. I personally loathe the way I did Jack’s face in the old drawing. It’s SO wonky, I can’t believe I didn’t catch it before I uploaded it. But oh well, live and learn
• One aspect where I think the older drawing is actually better is in the shadows, specifically the shadows around Jack and underneath his legs. I think that in the new drawing I could’ve made his under-leg shadows a bit darker, so he felt more grounded within the composition
• Another tweak I would make if I could go back, would be to sharpen up the lines and shades of the upper left area of the drawing, around the hooks and back of the cubby, it feels a little flat to me
• Finally, one last change I would make would be to Jack’s head shape. It just seems a tiny bit small, or maybe angled wrong? Maybe it’s his hair, I probably could’ve spent more time on that area. That was the last section I worked on before basically being done, other than touch-ups and corrections, and by that point I was kinda losing steam and wanted to get it done with lol
Anyways, yeah! Those are my thoughts when comparing these two drawings, I figured some of y’all might be interested to hear a little bit about my drawing thought process haha
Wet Like by Ashnikko ft. Cobrah has crack in it I swear. I've been obsessed with this song since it came out back in October. It’s just sooo good. The pen-game, the flow, that crunchy bass synth.. oh my gooddd. So so so good. Perfection 🤌
