kylekozmikdeluxo - Tumblr blog

kylekozmikdeluxo · 8 days

Text

New concept art: Trying to refine what it is I've been exploring for this project for a year or so. Really trying to lean more into details and comic-like touches. Previous pieces, I felt, looked too much like a low-budget TV series. I figured I'd lean more into these being still pictures, not models for a series that are meant to be animated in different perspectives and such.

#webcomic #comic #cartoon #comics #shameless plugging #always be plugging #my webcomic

3 notes · View notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 11 days

Text

Halfway there enby giving… Discount 2004 Weird Pseudopunk Gal?

0 notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 22 days

Text

LOUDER-dot-esp

Nonbinary legit means outside established gender ideas yet you racist, transmisogynist, otherwise bioessentialist assholes keep bothering amab nb people because you think theyre too masc or whatever to be nb. Hey newsflash not all nb people are androgynous-femme white stick thin transmascs with undercuts

12K notes · View notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 24 days

Text

So yeah, I am aware of that LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL movie that's currently playing in theaters... I caught parts of it at my movie theater job, because I had no intention of really watching the whole thing, let alone pay for it in any way...

Guess it just rammed home every frustration I have as an artist and what the system has morphed into. For the past five or so years, I've struggled to get an art or graphic design-related job despite having a degree (with honors no less), and despite having a lot of my own personal work out there in the world.

Now I get that things are super-competitive, and that there are a thousand other people jockeying for these kinds of positions. They are not easy to obtain, no matter your experience level or how well known your work is. I get that...

But here's the thing. LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL is set in 1977, and is about a fictional talk show that's similar to Johnny Carson's late-night show and such. AI-generated images were used for the show's interstitial title cards... And I popped into an auditorium showing the movie just to see what the movie itself was like *and* how jarring the AI-generated title cards were... It also looked like a few other things in the movie were AI-generated, too, such as the painting on the stage door and some physical backgrounds used for the comedy show's skits...

And...

I was just beyond frustrated. The card did look like an AI-generated image. Fake, something off about it, and an idea that a graphic designer could've easily whipped up and realized better using their brain.

So instead of paying an artist who might be living paycheck to paycheck, the filmmaking team behind LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL generated the images... Much has been written and ranted about regarding this movie, and what kind of precedent it sets (hint: it's a very very bad one), and yes... I'm firmly on the side of my fellow artists.

The rest of the movie itself, whatever wasn't AI-generated, looked pretty solid... Great, even? Like, this looked like a movie I myself would've seen had they not used AI to generate pictures and graphics. 1970s setting, retro aesthetics, a lot of it filmed in 4:3 aspect ratio with VHS fuzz, presented in a sort-of documentary fashion. David Dastmalchian, too! Like, I actually would want to see this movie... But they had to generate pictures, scraping the work of artists while not giving an artist a gig...

I picture myself living near where this movie was being produced or finalized... I think about my life situation right now, and I think to myself... A thing I love to do with graphic design is to make retro graphics, logos, and aesthetics. I love to design things that look like they came out of the 20th century. This would've been a job that would be *perfect* for me. I would've happily said yes to **designing '70s title cards and artwork** for **an independent horror movie**! Would look amazing on a resume, too!! And I'm sure plenty of other artists living paycheck to paycheck would JUMP at such an opportunity had it been presented to them.

But it wasn't...

And you're left with a movie that's a good cake (all the live-action stuff, stuff in the made that was actually made by someone) with crappy icing.

I don't like this. AI-generated pictures (they're not art, art is made by living beings, not prompts typed into a generator) have no place in the movies, on a big screen, or anywhere. AI should only be a tool, an assist, something to make workflow easier on certain things... Not a substitute for works made by people. Whether it's for replacing jobs, or using it without considering hiring an actual artist to do the job, I do not approve of it in any way.

And it's a shame, because I'd happily support and check out LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL.

0 notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 1 month

Text

How I draw Terra Forma. Basically my style guide.

#webcomic #comic #cartoon #comics #oc #ocs #my webcomic #my oc #always be plugging #shameless plugging

2 notes · View notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 2 months

Text

The Sorta-Kinda Thomas Creepypasta I Had In My Head at Age 6

Weird-ass story from childhood time...

Growing up, I was like obsessed... Almost religiously, with THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE. A whole franchise which of course needs no introduction.

Like most American kids growing up in the 1990s, I first caught that blue locomotive and his pals on a PBS show called SHINING TIME STATION. It was a live-action show about some kids visiting their local train station, and the 4 1/2-minute THOMAS episodes would be a show-within-that-show. Usually the episode would relate to what was going on in the train station. The tales were told by a little man named Mr. Conductor, portrayed by the series' first UK narrator Ringo Starr in the first season, and then later by comedian George Carlin.

I have memories of watching that show with my paternal grandfather, when I was about... 3? I remember observing "The trains have faces... But they don't have cowcatchers." My grandfather and I would often draw train locomotives together, too. He'd teach me about the little minute details and such. Right down to the spokes on the wheels. That's part of why I'm an artist.

Anyways, let's jump ahead a little... I was 5, I hadn't seen that show in a while. Maybe because of scheduling, maybe I just wasn't watching that channel back then. Maybe I was watching VHS tapes more than watching TV...

One day, in the summer of 1998, I was given a VHS tape of a few of the THOMAS episodes on their own. SHINING TIME STATION episodes were barely released on home media, only the individual Thomas stories, and tapes were usually random grab-bags of episodes from the show's first 3-4 seasons. That first tape I got consisted of seven episodes, all in UK airing order no less, from season one. It was "James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories".

Now at that age, I had remembered watching the "trains with faces but no cowcatchers" show with my grandfather. I also still had my ERTL die-cast toy of Edward with two coaches that I sometimes played with... So I was like "Sure, I remember Thomas. I'll watch this."

That's where it all went downhill, lol.

And by my birthday and Christmas of that year, I was getting all these VHSes of the show and toys and such. I fit the cliche of autistic kid who was **addicted** to Thomas, add in that I used to identify as male. So yeah, the autistic Thomas boy stereotype through and through right here.

For my birthday that year, one of the VHS tapes I got was "A Big Day for Thomas and Other Stories". It was a compilation of Season 1 episodes, all narrated by George Carlin. Carlin would re-narrate all of the Season 1 and 2 episodes previously done by Ringo...

This was a weird tape, to say the least. It was rather short, and it had some episodes out of order. For example, the episode 'Thomas Breaks the Rules' ('Thomas in Trouble' in the UK) was the 2nd episode on the tape... But the episode that directly proceeds it, 'Toby the Tram Engine' ('Toby and the Stout Gentleman' in the UK) was at the *end* of the tape. Like, that story goes right into the 'Breaks the Rules' story. That's how the continuity was in the early series, as it closely followed the original books - THE RAILWAY SERIES. So it was weirdly out of order. Like watching AVENGERS: ENDGAME first, and then a few movies later, watching AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.

Second... On old Thomas VHSes, each episode had a small intermission before and after. A sequence of the characters, and white boards in front of them with their names on them. Thomas fans often call these the "Nameboard" sequences. They'd be a few seconds long, with the Thomas theme playing over them. They'd end with an image of Sir Topham Hatt/The Fat Controller, with the text "Next Story Coming Up Soon!"

Usually that screen was silent, or had the last bars of the Thomas theme playing over it...

But for some reason, on the "Big Day for Thomas" VHS... There was the sound of a whistle at the end of the nameboard sequence leading up to the episode 'Trouble for Thomas' ('Thomas and the Trucks' in the UK). Not any of the characters' whistles, but a more realistic sounding one...

Now, as a weird kid who was *easily* thrown off by things... 6-year-old me in 1998 was freeeeaked out by this. Like, why was that weird-sounding whistle there? Why this ONE tape and not all my other ones? Who's was it? Was this some... Secret character?

I was aware of characters I hadn't seen in episodes before... Maybe it was one of them? When I looked at the ERTL die-cast models in the catalogues, I would scope out some characters... For some reason, I thought that whistle would belong to one of the narrow-gauge engine characters. Like Skarloey or Rheneas or Duncan or Duke... For some reason, that's what I thought back then. They looked like engines that would have that whistle, to me!

Now comes something different...

At my maternal grandparents' house, this book was in a drawer in the guest room, among other books:

(image above is from an etsy listing. credit where credit is due.)

I'm assuming it belonged to one of my cousins, who used to stay there a lot when he was really young... And like any kid, I looked through whatever picture book there was. Looking at this book today, I will say that I find a lot of Greg Hildebrandt's illustrations to be very pretty.

Also, it's kinda weird that I'm talking about Christmas in freakin' March, but here we are...

Anyways...

There was one illustration in that book that didn't quite sit right with me when I was little:

It had to have been those dead eyes, lol. How wide open they were, a black dot in a white circle, but on a wooden head and not a cartoon character...

The more I thought of it back then, the more it seemed like a Thomas character face... Albeit, a cursed one!

And I started conjuring up, in my mind, a secret Thomas character who had that off-sounding whistle heard on that *one VHS* volume. He had a face like that, and was darker-looking in his livery than the other engines. It's as if I was making my own Thomas creepypasta in my head, at age 6!! I don't recall drawing this engine though, he could've been an early OC for me!

Eventually, I'd find out that none of the engines had that whistle in the show... And that SHINING TIME STATION would return to TV in time for the release of the movie, THOMAS AND THE MAGIC RAILROAD. Some two years after I started getting into this show...

The whistle was from the show's George Carlin seasons. When he'd blow the whistle, it would go to the Thomas story. The same way Ringo Starr did in the show's first season, but his whistle had a different, higher-pitched noise. I had the SHINING TIME STATION Christmas episode on VHS, and that was with Ringo. So, back then, I didn't know that that whistle originated from SHINING TIME STATION.

But still, it was kinda cool that I was imagining this whole other Thomas character. A sorta more sinister and foreboding engine. Almost like a Sonic-dot-exe situation, that I thought up because I didn't like the sound of a random whistle that was nowhere to be heard in the show, that somehow got onto one part of a VHS volume I had, likely due to an editing error or something.

Some shadowy, creepy Nutcracker doll-faced engine lurking within the darker recesses of the show. Maybe if the tape deteriorated enough, you'd catch a glimpse of him amidst the fuzz... I imagined his nameboard, surrounded by thick dark grey smoke. For some reason, a name sounding like "Mico" coming up. Not at all the raccoon from Disney's POCAHONTAS, although "Nico" would be a good villain name for a cursed Thomas character.

And then the engine himself... just peering at me with those beady eyes as the shadowy smoke obscured just about everything else, during the night. It was like a gritty industrial setting more so than the roundhouse sheds...

The "Early Reel of 1983" ain't got nothin' on this one!

#thomas the tank engine #hyperfixations #autism #neurodivergent #weird fears when i was little #i was a weird kid #creepypastas

2 notes · View notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 2 months

Text

Republicans are garbage. Fuck this shit, and fuck them. If you live in Missouri, my heart hurts for you.

So Missouri is introducing a bill that would make it so teachers would be charged as sex offenders and put on the registry for "contributing to social transition" of trans youth. This is so completely fucked up. A teacher can be charged with a class E felony for using they/them pronouns. They’re making aiding trans people punishable by law. They’re making it illegal to help trans people. They want to make it impossible to support us. They want to cut us off from all resources in society. They want to starve us out.

You can read the whole bill here: https://documents.house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills241/hlrbillspdf/5874H.01I.pdf

14K notes · View notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 2 months

Text

Immaturity is not having much self-awareness, an unwillingness to learn and engage with the world around you, refusing to see a bigger picture, projection that hurts others...

NOT... enjoying cartoons, reading comics, collecting toys, being silly, etc.

0 notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 2 months

Text

lol hey look it’s a day in the life of being autistic!

craziest phenomenon on the internet lately is people who will be like “cringe culture is DEAD be WEIRD be FREE have FUN cringe is DEAD do WHATEVER YOU WANT FOREVER!” and then immediately crucify anyone who is queer in a way they don’t like. or wants to kiss a fictional character. or thinks the computer is hot. like ohhh i get it you’re only okay with weird people you personally can tolerate. you are a tar pit

44K notes · View notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 2 months

Text

Let's hope they all break out!

72 notes · View notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 2 months

Text

Published my second original short story on ao3, titled BUBBLEGUM OF PURPOSE?

1 note · View note

kylekozmikdeluxo · 2 months

Note

Ohhhhh great...

Whatever happens, I'll act accordingly. For both this account and my account for my webcomic. Fuck all this generative-AI shit.

What is this about the tumblr staff wanting to sell art data to midjourney?

An ex-colleague of mine mentioned yesterday that there may be contacts between Automattic and midjourney in that direction, but nothing is public yet and I don't have any more info. They probably won't have anything specific to share either, since they left the company weeks ago too. That being said:

I have no reason to doubt my ex-coworker word, they are a trustworthy person.

Tumblr's CEO has been absurdly enthusiastic (comically, even) about AI, and is a big fan of LLMs and 'AI' companies.

A deal with midjourney could solve tumblr financial issues (not the same company, but openAi is paying up to 5 million/year to news companies to use their content as training data... tumblr generates several orders of magnitude more content than any newspaper or any media company and it only would need a 20 to 30 million per year deal to be profitable)

So I don't have any extra info yet, but I'm keeping my ears open.

52K notes · View notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 3 months

Text

On planet Monda Zoper, the diners serve up stuff that has a real sting to it.

#webcomic #comic #cartoon #comics #my webcomic #always be plugging #oc #ocs #shameless plugging

1 note · View note

kylekozmikdeluxo · 3 months

Text

Published my first short story, which is on ao3. It's titled SCUMHUNTERS, it's a sci-fi/horror/supernatural sorta story:

2 notes · View notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 3 months

Text

20 chapters? Wow! That's right, I'm now 20 chapters into my little Spyro fanfic - SPYRO & EYOLIR: THE DRAGON WORLD. We're halfway through the Beast Makers Realm now, with some fun surprises along the way!

#spyro the dragon #spyro #fanfic #fic #fanfiction #ao3 #ao3 fanfic

0 notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 3 months

Text

Kind of a diary entry, I guess...

This month and the previous month have been HELL for me. Work isn't scheduling me enough, in fact my job is starting to suck these days for various reasons, the job search continues to be fruitless, my financial situation is far from stable, and as a result my mental health has taken a serious smack. It's made worse by other issues I'm having at the moment. There are days where I don't feel like myself, and that I'm not fully back on track just yet. A lot of my creative endeavors have taken a hit, too. It's why I'm largely working on a fanfic at the moment, and not my original stuff.

Earlier today, I went to the movies. First time since the first week of January, when I had seen POOR THINGS. Much like most of my movie theater trips, I went alone. I was *literally* alone when seeing GODZILLA MINUS ONE today, because there were like two other people in that theater. I caught the Minus Color edition of the movie. Treated myself to some junk food, at that. Prior to the movie, I saw some of my co-workers, whom I really enjoy seeing. So for about three hours, my mind wasn't wandering to something awful or horrible, nor was it ruminating on things.

It's kind of what I miss about college and work, honestly. Almost every day I had a little something to do to keep my mind busy, and then I would have some time for creative endeavors. Though I will point out... after COVID-19 hit in the U.S., and I had many months without a job and was long done with college? Things kinda RULED?

Despite the emotional hardships and all the terrible things that were going on, being home everyday uncorked so much in me. I came up with so much new stuff, and greatly improved stories and projects I had been working on for YEARS. It's like I found a former, cringier, more rebellious me that I had locked up for unfounded reasons and set that earlier me free.

So, the other part of me is like "No, working/having something to do all the time stifled your creativity and kept you from branching out!" This is where I feel that I have to find the balance. Being home and alone all the time to eventually let bad thoughts stew sucks, but so does having to do something all the time to the point of exhaustion.

Today, I simply got myself ready and went out and saw a movie. Not just an aimless car ride around town, which sometimes end in dissatisfaction. I saw some co-workers. Wasn't much, as I normally try to hit the flicks, and I see these people whenever I have shifts (lol, not much anymore!), but it was like bliss in a way. If I could just have days like that where the "do stuff to keep your mind off of things" and down-time balance is just right, I think life would significantly get better for me...

0 notes

kylekozmikdeluxo · 3 months

Text

I'm now 17 chapters into my Spyro fanfic, SPYRO & EYOLIR: THE DRAGON WORLD... An adaptation of the first game in the original series.

This has been fun to work on while I take a break on other projects of mine, though has come with its set of challenges, as I've only done fanfic many, many years ago. When I was like 12-13, and never published any of it lol.

0 notes