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robotlesbianjavert · 1 year

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do you have any horror manga recommendations? I've been reading them a lot lately

ooh that is a very very good question!! and honestly if you've been following me for a while you've probably seen my catalogue of horror manga lmao. as much as manga is my preferred medium compared to anime and ykno i have a casual fondness for horror, it actually takes me a while to work through new manga DX DX i do have a couple of stuff i can probably suggest, though.

(since you're actively seeking horror, i'm gonna take a guess and assume you're not really in need of any major trigger warnings, since a lot of these recs include gore/violence/sexuality/abuse/general skeeziness, or at least can anticipate that you're gonna run into unsavory stuff, but you can follow up and let me know if there is actually something i should take note of.)

One thing I find with horror manga (and horror in general, but manga especially) is a common big genre drift with things action or comedy or adventure or something. A lot of the well-known names on rec lists have horror elements rather than being primarily horror, or the horror influence ends up downplayed as the story goes on. but still excellent. If I have recs in the realm of "horror-lite/influenced", I'd say:

Kemono Jihen by Sho Aimoto, kid joins a detective agency in Tokyo meant to resolve supernatural incidents between "kemono" and humans.

Dandadan by Yukinobu Tatsu, a girl who believes in spirits & ghosts and a boy who believes in aliens become friends! And a lot of things happen because the creator assisted for Fujimoto of Chainsaw Man fame, so it has a lot of the same off-the-wall, irreverent humour. While it's not as tight or classy as CSM, it's still a fuckin fun romp with nice horror moments.

Both of those I actually need to catch up with, haha. I'll actually recommend Can You Just Die, My Darling? as well, although I'm not sure if you're the anon who recced it to me first. Much stronger on the horror & violence elements, but it's another one I still have to catch up on.

I'm trying to avoid the obvious recommendations that you can get off any list, like Junji Ito or idk. Tokyo Ghoul, Dorohedoro or something like that. But special shout out to Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. I'm most familiar with the 2006/07 anime series rather than the games (besides a couple of let's plays) and the manga, but I watched it with my sisters when I was young, LONG before I considered myself a horror fan, and I still consider those question arcs to have some of the best horror sequences ever experienced blind. Hugely influential.

In a similar vein to trying to avoid obvious recs, I know that Shuzo Oshime has gotten more popular as of late, but I've been working through Blood on the Tracks, which is about really insane mommy issues, so if you're cool with that!! You can also check out his other works that I haven't gotten to, but yeah I think he's

For probably my biggest recommendations though - the first one is a short-ish read, I think it was only one volume? The other two were excellent recommendations from my friends!

Helter Skelter by Kyoko Okazaki is about how fucked up the modelling & beauty industry is. There's also a movie adaptation that I haven't watched it.

Hikaru Ga Shinda Natsu (The Summer Hikaru Died) by Mokumokuren, a relatively new BL ongoing series about two friends who live in a rural village - except one of the friends had disappeared months ago in the mountains.

And my actual personal favourite recommendation, Kurosagi: Corpse Delivery Service. It's about a team of students at a Buddhist college who start a company to deliver corpses. They also solve murders along the way! This is a really great series and pretty easy to get into, I think - there's some ongoing plot, but a lot of the arcs are more episodic in nature. A lot of fun discussion on Japanese culture and views on death, it's funny, the gore and horror art are just great, it's just a cool unique series. The only thing is that while I believe it's completed, it's not fully translated in English - I think translations only go up to chapter ~89? So while there's story threads that are unanswered, the translations don't end on a cliffhanger at least.

I do have a "To Read" list compiled after going through some other rec lists / Youtube videos about horror manga. I can't speak to the quality of these yet, but they must have been intriguing enough for me to write them down. Here's a selection of them, not including general creators I wanted to check out:

Dai Dark by Q Hayashida of Dorohedoro fame

Doubt, Judge, and Secret by the guy who did the Higurashi manga.

Another

The Serial Killer is Laughing in the Rain

As the Gods Will

Jagaaan

The Horror Mansion

Fear Infection

Mushihime

Homunculus

Ichi the Killer

Mister Arashi's Amazing Freakshow

PTSD Radio

Dementia 21

Dark Hideout

Halloween Desetsu

The Quiz

Mantis Woman

Presents

If you've read any of those, or get to them before I do, or read any of the prior recs let me know your thoughts!! Always down to chat horror.

Aside from that. Well Digimon: Ghost Game was pretty fun when I was watching it. Had some spooky ooky moments. If you like Digimon o:

actually i'm going to use this opportunity to again reiterate how validated i was when horikoshi had that comment about how he'd like to try doing horror when one of my prominent thoughts when the MVA arc was running was how much potential the guy had as a horror artist and how it could really free him. my goddamn vision.

#thank you anon <3 <3 <3

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gremoria411 · 6 months

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In yet another self-sabotaging attempt to not watch Gundam Narrative/Gundam Ibo Urdr Hunt (honestly why do I do this to myself), I have started watching the original Gundam 0079.

(I literally went right over Narrative on the shelf, too).

Until now, I’ve basically done everything except watch the original - I got some very good cliff notes, I read the Origin Manga, I watched the Compilation Movies. But I never actually watched the show.

I’ve only watched the first three-ish episodes so far, so this’ll be a first impressions kinda deal. For reference, I’m watching the Dubbed Blu-Ray Collection (which is where that art above is from). I did try the subtitles, but I find they take up a lot of the screen, and the Japanese Audio quality isn’t fantastic.

Right, enough preamble, how is it?

In brief, dated as all hell.

Obviously, it’s dated as all hell. It was laid down and made in late-70s Japan, a far different environment than contemporary Japan. The Animation’s old and it’s incredibly clear that they were working on a budget with all the still frames. But even from the perspective of someone who came in through the wider Gundam series it’s very odd.

Like, the opening score is some stirring, heroic music about how the Gundam will fight back all its enemies, and how you must fight. Likely meant to juxtapose how war is presented in media versus what the shows actually about - the horrors implicit within war. But it’s still something of a tonal whiplash. And then the closing song is all about Amuro becoming a man, so it still reads a little off.

It’s interesting to note the great variety in characters though - a detail that I’d never seen in any of the adaptations is that Char essentially has a panic attack when he first fights the Gundam, simply because it swats his wingmate down so easily, and he truly realises how powerful it is. A lot of Bright’s early characterisation sells that he really doesn’t know what he’s doing, and Dozle (who they gave a really posh voice, by the way) mentions that Zeon’s also running low on supplies, selling that neither side’s doing so hot in the war.

Another nice detail is that when Amuro steps inside the Gundam, it doesn’t actually help the situation that much - yeah he takes out two Zaku’s, but this directly leads to him damaging Side 7, and injuring his father and the other engineers - the Gundam is a destructive saviour at best. It feels very different from the classic super robot vibes (though that may be speaking to my own unfamiliarity with the genre).

I don’t really have a concluding statement here, it’s just odd coming in from all the other shows and seeing how….. not unrefined…. How broad the series is. I can tell without checking that there’s a host of influences from *somewhere*, but I’m not knowledgeable enough about the genre to pinpoint anything.

(Also I love how catty the Zeon Commanders are. Gadem trading barbs with Char is just delightful, and I’m looking forward to seeing Conscon, since I find his design just sublime).

#gundam #ramblings #Mobile Suit Gundam #Mobilie Suit Gundam 0079 #Amuro Ray #RX-78-2

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twiststreet · 3 years

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Reading manga update: I’m 95 chapters into Promised Neverland (of 185-ish), one of the more “Current-generation” of big Shonen Jump manga hits. A separate writer and artist, too, and I think some digital tools on the visual side-- not as trad on the creation as One Piece; by my math artist Posuka Demizu was only about 28 when she started the comic, and 33 at its conclusion; couldn’t find any info on writer Kaiu Shirai. (Rodney Rothman is working on an Amazon live-action adaptation, which is kind of a funny choice, if you’re familiar with Rothman career).

It’s not a fight comic-- it’s a dark academia survival horror adventure (with frequent post-apocalypse vibes) (... for kids!), but with the “action” being more akin to what I imagine a gambling manga is like. It’s a lot of characters yelling about strategy at the top of their lungs, instead of how they’re going to power-up thanks to friendship or whatever.

I can see how that’d be hipper (especially if the classic power fantasy of fight manga had gotten tiresome through repetition)-- I dont know if that mode’s filtered down to bad American comics-- but I don’t know, I think I prefer fights. You can imagine a kid reading Dragonball and wanting to be like Goku, powering up constantly, you know, you imagine them wandering into a gym. But: how is reading about having a strategy going to help a kid?? I don’t really need the kids hanging outside of Circle K to want to outwit me. Those Robert Greene books are fun to read, but being too inside your head doing little strategies... I don’t know. Something to be said for knowing you can get punched by the world and get back up, and I’m not sure you can learn that from playing mind-chess or whatever...

Anyways, it’s a fun enough comic because since it’s sort of a survival horror thing, the stakes are always very, very high, from the first chapter on. I don’t especially feel strongly about the characters though (except there’s one rando little girl who shows up in a late, late arc just firing machine guns around, and I’m 10,000% rooting for that character to win)-- but I’m coming off of One Piece, which is just constant not-subtle manipulations to get you to root for very broad characters, so anything less overt is an adjustment for me now, I guess. The bad guys are mostly just dorks though after the initial arc, a huge dip there, and I don’t love the Big Explanation for what’s going on, which is also just some dork-shit, though maybe they sell it better later in...

But I mean, I’m 95 chapters in, in less than a week, so it’s obviously doing something right. Some of it’s just that I’m interested by the art and how it’s... It’s very Humberto Ramos. But is the artist, is she looking at whoever Ramos was influenced by (Carlos Meglia??) or is she looking at Ramos (she’s not looking at Art Adams), or is there some Japanese artist inbetween all that or...? It’s very exaggerated, but also some very detailed linework in there too (there are some trees in particular that look like they take some work, though who knows anymore with Photoshop). The worst part are there are these flashback panels constantly that ... I find inelegant but I guess were necessary for weekly serialization. Where I think the art’s the most interesting are the chapter titles, actually (which I think are usually not that interesting)-- the chapter titles are very florid.

The interesting thing between this and Chainsaw Man though is just wondering what kinda bead the Jump editors have on where little kids are at. What are they seeing when they talk to kids? “What’s going on with children??” -- me in a horror movie about a cursed town in Spain in 1977 or me now reading manga or me outside of Circle K after having been outwitted, goddammit, goddamn kids...

#Worst Hobby or Worstest Hobby?#manga

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goodgreycious · 7 years

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How to Succeed in Fangirling Without Really Trying

[Insert nervous laughter here]

I guess we should start with the basics like introductions and the more important things you need to know about me. Hi, my name is Grey. I am a person of the adult-ish variety who is, more importantly, a fangirl. Very soon, I will be graduating from college with a degree in history. And yes, just history. And no, I do not want to be a teacher. (This is important to the overall narrative I’m trying to create here, but we’ll get to that later.) I am a Hufflepuff and I take almost as much pride in that fact as I do about my remarkable ability to eat and drive at the same time (my friends might say otherwise, but they’re lying to you). My idea of a “lit” night is when the light radiates from my Netflix account. I love a good book and a bottle of dry, red wine. Preferably together. If there is one other thing I know for sure about myself at the ripe age of “almost-22,” it’s that being a fangirl is all I really know how to do. Maybe through this blog, I can take people on a journey they can relate to. Maybe if I share my story, it can help someone else who is out there feeling the way I’m feeling. Maybe they’ll even start a blog. It’s what I did.

To kick off this shindig, there is a little bit more you need to know about me. Like where and how my story starts. From a young age I was encouraged to be the best I could be. Not the best out of everyone, but my parents knew what I was capable of and they wanted me to do well for me, not anyone else. However, I was an awkward kid. No matter what my parents say. Isn’t everyone? Throughout my K-12 education, I somehow managed to stick myself right in the middle of the herd. I guess the more appropriate description would be “average.” I played one sport in my four years of high school, so I was not jock material. I was in choir, but not a soloist. I was in the musical, but felt more comfortable being part of the stage crew. I spent most of my lunches in my school’s library. The average high school student will experience some form of bullying and I was no exception. Not to the extent that others were, but it was enough to scar me so that my goal for that part of my education was just to get through it with as few waves as possible. So, I adapted and figured out that being stuck in the middle of everything is what made me happy. I didn’t want to be the center of attention. That would’ve been my worst nightmare. I hated myself back then and I had already given people enough of a chance to hate me in my earlier years. It might not have been bad, but it was enough.

I, also, might not be able to remember all the details, but I can pinpoint the moment I knew I was a fangirl. I was in 6th grade and I held in my meaty little hands a copy of The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I read the opening part of the first chapter entitled “I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher” and it is, to this day, the closest thing I can equate to finding myself. Tiny little me, reading a book about a kid not much older than her who feels it in every fiber of his bones that he is different and can’t do a damn thing about it at that moment, it just felt like coming home. I inhaled the words on those pages. I injected them into my bloodstream once every month. No other book could ever compare as I reread it over and over and over again. It was Wonderland and I was Alice, falling, falling, falling down the rabbit hole and but with no intention of ever stopping the free fall. And as I grew older and wiser, and my tastes expanded, I started to realize that I had always been like that. Disney movies were (still are) the pinnacle of my movie tastes. I wouldn’t watch anything other than animated movies until I was well over the age of 12. My mom begged me to play outside as a kid when all I wanted to do was sit down and watch Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, or the Disney Channel. Percy Jackson and his journey finally put it all into perspective for me. And I’m still spiraling. I started to consume knowledge about Greek Mythology more than my studies. I read anything fantasy based that I could get my hands on. Harry Potter, Fablehaven, Peter and the Star Catchers, Oh. My. Gods., House of Night, the list is as endless as it is ongoing. As I grew, my tastes expanded. I got into anime, sci-fi, comics, crime, true crime, literally anything that took me away from the normal life I was leading. What I wanted more than anything in the world was to be there.

All of these things carried me through my high school career, but not in the way I was expecting. I loved my stories, my otherworlds, more than I ever loved the real world, but it beckoned. Not so much like a siren’s song, more like the annoying alarm clock in the morning that you just perpetually want to turn off, but somehow end up hitting SNOOZE so it keeps waking you up every few minutes. High school was a time where the answer to the question “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?” was finally starting to be the most important question you could answer. I’ll give you three guesses as to what girl never, ever had the answer to that question and the first two don’t count… Yup, t’was me. I’m pretty sure every time someone asked me that, my answered changed. The only thing I really knew, at least at that point, was there were two things I loved. History and what I’ve come to now realize is my all-encompassing, heart-stopping, soul-crushing love for the creative process. Everything in this world that is created has a story that I need to know. I fawn over fan art just as much as Picasso or Van Gogh. I think fanfiction and their authors can sometimes be written better than the original. I have music on at all times during the day. If I am not reading, I am watching something. If I am not watching, then I am trying to hone my own creative processes. Everything about being a fangirl appeals me like a drug. Where bullying knocked me down, I bathed myself in fantasy and used it as my armor. When the only thing I wanted to do was just get through, my fandoms taught me how I should live. Whenever I felt like I wasn’t loved or good enough or whatever enough, somehow, some way, fiction would wrap its arms around me, remind me that I was, and lift me up to carry me home.

Sounds like a wonderful thing to make a career out of, right? But if bullying had taught me anything, it was that I wasn't good enough. I was never going to be a content creator. It was always going to be my destiny to be a content consumer. I could never be J.K. Rowling, Chris Hardwick, Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day, Lin Manuel Miranda. If I could go back and tell my younger self anything, it wouldn’t be any of the clichés like ‘it gets better’ or ‘just stay strong.’ I’d tell that little punk to stick it to whoever told her that what was making her feel whole wasn’t worth making a life out of. I would tell my younger self to be brave enough to prove them all wrong. I was constantly told that I could not make a sustainable career out what I loved. So, I did what I do best and adapted. History was the only other thing I really loved. It was the real stories, the non-fiction that inspires fiction. If I couldn’t create the stories, I would learn everyone else’s. That would surely solve that problem? It’d be a good enough substitute, right?

While I love history, it was like going from Ferrari to a Honda. The Honda will most definitely get you from Point A to Point B, but more so because you can’t afford a Ferrari in the first place. Which kind of brings me to where I am now and the whole reason I started this blog in the first place. Here’s me, about to graduate college with a degree in a field I love (even though it doesn’t sound like it) feeling like I’m doing nothing more than staring into a deep, vast, dark thing called The Void of Adulthood when the only thing I really want to do is take a nap. Or curl up with a good book or a new TV show. Forget the horror genre, adulthood, or the precipice of it, is the scariest shit I have ever encountered. And I am looking at this Void, wanting to take a ForeverNap™️, neck deep in a big-girl-full-time job search, wearing a Captain America shirt, Prisoner of Azkaban clutched in one hand, sonic screwdriver in the other, screaming my throat raw about how I am just not ready.

But getting back to the present. I mentioned that my degree in history would somehow be important to the overall narrative I’m trying to weave here. This is why. It goes back to being too scared to do what I really wanted to do. While I love history, it just doesn’t compare to the other thing. But, I was also too scared by real life to ever do anything to change it. I was too scared to tell everyone: “DAMN THE CONSEQUENCES AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR COLLECTIVE ASSES, I’M GOING TO DO THIS.” I never wanted to shake it up, challenge the status quo, and now I’m kicking myself for it. History was a safety net I didn’t realize was there until it was too late. All this suddenly came into perspective because I found my dream job. Given the chance, it would be one that I would be really, really good at… but I can’t get it. I don’t have a degree in a relevant field, I don’t have the job experience. I’m not prepared. And it sucks royal hippogriff.

And that, dear readers who have stuck with me all the way to this point, is why I am here. I started this blog to finally break out of my shell. I am no longer content with being a consumer. I want to be a creator. I want to contribute to the discussions. I want to write things that matter and that people can relate to. I want to be fully qualified. If writing this blog and finally, finally being able to contribute something to the worlds that have loved me when I thought no one else did is the only way I can give back and get experience, then so be it. If it is the only way I can be apart of the things I love right now, then I’m going to do it. This is how I stick it to those people who told me I couldn’t. This is how I throw it back in the faces of people who tore me down. I hope that I can take people along this journey with me. I have some fun things planned. And if there are people out there who are listening to the voices of negativity in whatever forms they take, I hope I can help you realize that you are strong enough to face those demons and win. I hope that together we can find a way to forge our own paths. I don’t want anyone to ever feel like I felt. No one deserves to feel like that.

Hi again, I’m Grey. Welcome home. Here, you will always be encouraged. Here, I promise to help you in whatever way I can. Here, you are safe. And here, above all, you are seen and you are loved.

#grey writes #my stuff #personal post

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charactersadvocatechimata · 7 years

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Confusion Builds Castles

“Young Master Toni, you know you are not allowed to answer the door. What would Master Stark say?”

“When will you learn some adult responsibility? It’s embarrassing that you have yet to accomplish anything worthwhile of the Stark name.”

“Yes, well. What would dear Ana say?”

“That life is an adventure.”

Jarvis gave a deep sigh causing his pendulum to give an extra bong. “Perhaps you would think of poor old Jarvis and his constant fear that the ground will swallow up his Young Master because of his adorability.”

“Sure, Jarvis.”

“Now. Who was at the door?”

“A magic lady.”

“A magic lady?”

“Yep.” Toni watched themselves flex their newly acquired claws. The sharp claws glittering as they moved and they enjoyed feeling their ears twitch with all new sounds they could hear.

“And what did this magic lady want?”

“I’m not sure. First, she wanted in then she didn’t and then she was bleh I curse thee bleh. There multiple mixed messages going on Jarvis. It’s not my fault.”

“I see, a curse. That would explain why I am a table clock and Ana is a teapot.” Jarvis raised an imperious brow, apparently he still had those even as a piece of furniture, and gave Toni a thoughtful look. “That would also explain your new fuzzy appearance.”

“I have claws Jarvis. I bet I can run faster than Captain America.” Toni bounced on their toes then launched into the air. They could jump so high. This would require testing. Much testing. They giggled landing on their toes once more.

“I wouldn’t know Young Master. I never met the man. Now could you please give the details of this curse?”

“Find my true love turn back human. Or something. It comes with a rose, but I left it near the door.” Toni once more launched themself into the air trying to reach even higher. Gasp. Maybe even reach the ceiling.

Jarvis nodded and made his way down the corridor towards the massive carved oak door. He stopped before a plain bell jar containing a floating red rose with a golden stem. It glowed and indeed looked like a magic cursing plant. Or at least matched the image of a magic plant that Jarvis held. “As I understand it. You find a nice person that will love you for your personality will break the curse.” He paused tapping a wooden hand against a glass face. He supposed he’d have to adapt to the strange clinking noise. “Did the Sorceress give you an expiration date Young Master?”

“A hundred years, maybe. I don’t know. The rose is supposed to be some kind of curse time piece.” Toni scrunches their face. “Ugh. Magic.”

“I see. We could have a while yet.”

“Sure, I’m not too worried. I mean, who would want to be a boring human, when you can be a scary werewolf with claws? Claws, Jarvis! I can jump higher than Captain America. I’m scary now.” Toni fell onto all fours and begun making attempts at a growl. It sound more like puppy snorting.

“Have you decided to forego engineering then?”

“What?”

“I do imagine that claws do not make the best tools for delicate invention work.”

Toni stared horrified at their claws. Yet only for a moment before determination filled their intense gaze. “I’m a genius. I’ll make it work.”

“Of course, Young Master.”

@@@

“Hallucination? Real? Hallucination? Real?” James stared at the sprawling stone structure. With Hydra on his tail he could not trust his luck. “But it’s Germany. Germany had castles. Castles and haunted forest. Grimm Fairy Tales have to based on something.” He couldn’t feel his flesh limbs and the metal once was sending short electrical pulse into his shoulder. It was probably busted. Bright side he was hallucinating castles and he could still wiggle his metal pinkie.

A strange noise reverberated through the woods. James almost imagined that the noise came from a horrifying monster but had to strangle a hysterical laugh that once started would only end with him frozen dead in the snow. After all he was the only monster to likely be in these woods.

“Your vote is usually supports the quickest way to my death, so… Castle it is.” James watches the skinny phantom huff and stamp his feet. He chuckles.

What is the worst that could happen? The castle is home to a mad scientist and James spends the rest of his life the guinea pig to all sorts of crazy experiments. Hahaha. Been there and done that. Even has the souvenir technologically advanced arm to prove it. Although, it’s basically a hunk of junk now.

James runs a hand through his hair and shudders as he remembers- vividly- that he got shot at- repeatedly- by men who don’t miss. Multiple bullet wounds are not fun.

The pain. The electricity running through his brain. The numbness. There’s blood on his hands but he doesn’t care. No more pain. Life is nothing but pain. The words. The orders. He doesn’t feel pain when he follows orders. He could sleep. Land of ice is his home.

<Bucky!>

“Right. Right. Enter the castle of Victor Von Doom.”

James scoffs. “What would you know. You’re dead.”

The skinny phantom pities him. James is that pathetic. Pities him then disappears leaving James to deal with the strange hallucination castle all on his own.

Eventually, after much shuffling, James reaches a large wooden door. There are carvings of some crest and a family motto. “Stark’s are made of iron. That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever read. I regret learning German because of this stupid door.”

No one answers.

The door opens easily enough. James had expected the door’s hinges to be frozen or rusted or something. No way anyone lived here. Yet the door didn’t even create an obnoxious creaking noise that seem to be demanded in any horror setting. A man could hope. Once inside those hopes were efficiently dashed. The inside could have been a duplicate of Dracula’s home away from home. Dark empty hall barely lit by their adorned candles and strange whispers that bounced along the walls so he couldn’t tell where they originated from. Strangely enough, it was warm. James had the typical sting sensation on his fingertips that meant his nerves were coming back online.

“Ah, a guest. Welcome.”

James took a step back, eyes sweeping the area and his flesh hand twitching for a weapon. That voice was not coming from him or any other person that he could see. “Who’s there?”

“Jarvis. The family butler. Greetings.” The voice was closer, and James barely stifled the flinch. “Down here, Sir.”

He didn’t question it. James simply peered down and finally noticing a human-ish looking clock. It projected a very proper British feel. The soldier was impressed. He assumed that was quite a feat for a talking clock. “Ah! I’m hallucinating. Excellent.”

“You are not. In fact, Sir, you are bleeding all over these newly cleaned entrance way. I am a bit peeved.”

The soldier took a peek at his boots. They were red. Strange. He did not remember putting on red boots this morning. But memory was a touch and go thing for him. What with Hydra zapping his brain all the time. Well, he assumes it’s all the time. He can’t remember.

“Apologies.”

Then. Everything goes black. He always he knew he’d die in the snow.

<Don’t be a drama queen Barnes.>

Heh. After seventy years as a marionette, he had earned some drama. With high pitched screaming on his part.

@@@

“Oh, you’re awake. Good. Awesome. I’m filled with excitement.” The strange creature stopped and tilted its head. Was it wearing a lab coat?

“I can feel both arms.” He blacked out. Before black out, only one arm. Yet here he was after with two arms. Probably fixed while he was out. It was a dream, he’d never escaped. The pain. There would always be pain. Actually. Where was the pain? The metal arm always ways sent soft aches up his arm and jarring spikes down the limb. “Nothing hurts.”

The Creature smiled, there were teeth and a friendly vibe, rapidly nodding its head and moving its hands widely about before beginning a truly long speech. “Yup. I fixed everything. Beautiful junk parts and squishy disgusting part. Everything. Best part was the arm and the worst part. I have never seen technology so advance before that wasn’t created by yours truly. Yet here you plop with a completely metal arm attached to you brain. It sends pain and touch sensations to your brain. I was amazed. Only to be horrified about what a piece of scrap it was. The stand-in nerves were a joke I swear. There was no temperature regulator and the energy source made me weep. The arm he cried out for a real engineer to save him. Alas I was too late. It was scrapped except for the core skeleton. Luckily for everyone involved you were totally out. So I rebuilt the arm from scrap. Energy, sensors, weight, dexterity, all of it. Revamped by true genius.”

First James wondered if the Creature needed to breath. Second was the knot in his gut. Another mad scientist. “You operated on me in my sleep. Without my consent. Who the fuck told you that was okay? That was not okay. I am not some toy to satisfy your curiosity, you freak.” As if he is one to talk. The nails dig too hard into his hand but he doesn’t register it. It’s nothing. Literally nothing against real pain. “Why doesn’t hurt?”

The Creature blinks. Tilts its head. “Umm, what?”

“Did you drug me? Is that why nothing hurts?” he hisses.

“No. Nothing should be hurting if I did the job properly.” It rubs a claw tiredly along its face. “I don’t know if it was due to malice or incompetence but your arm was attached properly causing a sensation feedback. There was also the weight that would pull on your spine and ribcage. Of course, there is also the impressive flesh damage all over your person. I patched what I could and your natural healing factor took over the rest. Those are the only possibilities I am aware. Which do you refer?”

Incompetence? Was that possible? Maybe. Zola has been dead about fifty years now. He made the tech and there is definitely no other man like him. He tries to tug himself free but find his not bound to anything. He stands up and backs away from the table expecting to be halted but the Creature does nothing. He flexes his new arm and finds that the Creature spoke the truth. It feels lighter and there is no pain.

“The Young Master is sorry that this was done without your consent, Sir-”

“No, I’m not.”

“-but your life was in danger and you blacked out. Would could not give informed consent. It had to be done. Still apologies. However, if you were hoping to die and would happily assist.”

“So I did not hallucinate the talking clock. Good to know. Also, no I did not want to die. You are creepy.”

“Yeah, Jarvis has gotten a little dark as a clock.” It waves a claw at James. “Why would you hallucinate a clock? Hallucinations are supposed to be a contemptuous father figure or the idea fairy.” It narrows its eyes. “You did not hear me say fairy. I hate magic. There was no fairy but if the idea fairy asks I totally gave credit.”

James takes another step backwards and feels his back meet a wall. The wall says hi. He slumps against his sturdy new friends. “I am so confused.”

“Understandably.” The clock intones.

The Creatures laughs heartily. The skinny phantom is sniggering too. Bucky has an annoyed niggling in the side of his brain that warns that those two should never meet. There would be chaos. Endless chaos. On the other hand, James could use some chaos.

#tony stark #Bucky Barnes #Winter Solider #Steve Rogers #au #beauty and the beast #edwin jarvis #mention of an assisted suicide #only mentioned #no actual suicide #an idea I had cause of the new movie #don't know if I like it or not #eh #winteriron #technically #no shipping happens #my writings #i should be asleep #agender tony stark

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swipestream · 6 years

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Sensor Sweep: Gardner Fox, Manitou, Lost Race novels, Sagas of Midgard

Fiction (Gardnerfrancisfox.com): This is the first volume collected and illustrated by Kurt Brugel. The short stories collected in the volume are from Mr. Fox’s earliest (1944) to his last story published (1982). There are all types of stories being told. They range from 2 spooky/creepy (The Weirds of the Woodcarver and Rain, Rain, Go away!), 3 sword & sorcery (The Return of Dargoll, The Holding of Kolymar, and Crom and the Warlock of Sharrador), 4 cosmic adventures (Heart of Light, The Rainbow Jade, Temptress of the Time Flow and The Man Who Couldn’t Die) and 1 history lesson (Cleopatra).

Cinema (Eldritch Paths): Hard Boiled and the Rule of Cool

I’ve been noticing a trend toward “realism” recently. I see this a lot in fantasy circles where many demand “realism” in their fantasy or complain about the lack thereof. I never understood this. If I wanted realism, I’d just go outside.

Now, I’m not necessarily against realistic fiction. I’ve read classic British novelists like George Eliot and Thomas Hardy. They’re great authors, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I’m against the idea that “realistic” fiction is somehow intrinsically better than non-realistic fiction.

RPG (RPG Pundit): I think that after a few hundred years to consider, it might still be too soon to tell, but it’s starting to look to me like the invention of the modern novel was, in the final balance, a big mistake. And it’s hilarious to see articles being published (like this one here) suggesting that somehow modern literature is better because in pre-modern literature heroes just went and did stuff, and you didn’t get a lot of information by the author (like you would in a novel) explaining what they were feeling or how their inner monologue was going or what their motivation was.

Fiction (Wasteland and Sky): Welcome to the third part of this mini-series covering volume 27 of the Pan Book of Horror Stories. In the first part we covered a set of odd shorts that were vaguely horror-ish but more in the vein of satire (at least, I hope so), and in the second part we went over three stories that each had their own weaknesses. Halfway through this book and I’ve started to question just how this once vaunted series had fallen so far. I keep hoping the back half will improve in quality.

Fiction (Adventures Fantastic): Today, October 15, marks two more birthdays. James Schmitz (1911-1981) and E. C. Tubb (1919-2010).

Schmitz wrote space opera in the 1950s and 1960s, although he sold his first story, “Greenface” to Unknown in 1943.

Most of Schmitz’s work is set in the Hub. While there are a variety of characters, the two principle recurring characters are Telzey Amberdon, a young woman with psi powers who tends to find herself in a jam on a regular basis, and Trigger Argee, an agent for the government.

Art (Tellers of Weird Tales): Boris Dolgov did not exist. The man who bore that name may have existed, but there never was a man in the United States with that name until 1956, too late forWeird Tales. At least that’s what public records say. Search for Boris Dolgov or Dolgoff or Dolgova or Dolkoff or any other permutation you can think of and you’re likely to come up empty . . . except for a Russian-American farmer who now lies buried in a Jewish cemetery in Washington State.

Fiction (Locus Magazine): Does any genre of fiction ever actually become extinct? And if a genre does go extinct, does that mean that its subject matter, its core material and reason for existing, has no relevance or holds no interest any longer for a contemporary audience?

Most long-time readers can adduce a few genres that, if not extinct, have decidedly gone out of fashion. Westerns once seemed on the verge of disappearing entirely, but while they are certainly not produced in the vast numbers of yore, they do persist at some level. What about “nurse novels?” Fiction about the medical profession continues, and such novels might include nurses.

RPG (Black Gate): It’s been awhile, and not because there’s been any shortage of Norse-themed role playing games! In this time, we’ve had the derivative Dragon Heresy, a d6 system called Vikingr, older campaign settings such as Hellfrost and systems such as Trudvang

Chronicles, and many others. Our topic on this Odin’s Day, however, is the latest of these: Sagas of Midgard.

Honestly, I had kind of retired from investment in Viking-age rpgs. My home game hasn’t involved the Norse-specific setting for more than a year, my pocketbook doesn’t drip nine golden rings as Odin’s Draupnir does, and there isn’t much utility in owning much more, since I doubt I’d be able to wrest my gamers from my tabletop version of Fourth Age Middle-earth anytime soon.

Fiction (James Reasoner): I always try to read some horror fiction for the Forgotten Books post closest to Halloween, and this year it’s THE MANITOU, the debut novel from prolific horror, mystery, and historical novelist Graham Masterton. This book was published in 1976 and was very successful, selling enough copies that they turned up in used bookstore overstock well into the Eighties. When I owned a used bookstore during the era, I always had multiple copies on my shelves. I never got around to reading it until now, though. (There’s also a movie adaptation from 1978 that I’ve never seen.)

Fiction (Woelf Dietrich): Last week I blogged about accepting the Pre-Tolkien Challenge. You can read that post here. Other blogs taking part in the

challenge can be read here and here. And you can find the originating post that started this challenge here. In short, I have to identify three short stories published before Lord of the Rings. That is to say, three stories published before 1954. And in my review, I have to look at the differences and/or similarities with Tolkien’s world. Today’s my first entry in this exciting challenge so let’s get started.

I grew up reading Conan stories.

Art (Davy Crockett’s Almanac): Gallery of Famous Fantastic Mystery pulp magazine covers.

Art (Lawrence Person): Here’s two unusual Robert E. Howard-related items I picked up off eBay relatively cheaply. I think both of these were originally freebie giveaways to promote fancy illustrated editions of Howard’s work.

Fiction (Grave Tapping): A three-man strike force accustomed to rescuing prisoners of war in the jungles of Vietnam is stateside on a rogue mission in Los Angeles. Mark Stone, known as the MIA Hunter, is asked by an old war buddy, now a deputy chief with LAPD, to help rescue Rick Chavez from a Colombian drug cartel. Chavez is a Pulitzer award winning journalist who has been writing a series of hard and insightful articles about the drug trade in L. A. The articles have enough detail that the LAPD and the drug gangs—Crips, Bloods and their Colombian suppliers—want to know where his information is coming from.

Fiction (Frontier Partisans): Thanks to a tip from Italian Front scout Davide Mana, I picked up the first Dark Horse Conan Omnibus for $2 on Monday. The first story is Born on a Battlefield, depicting the Cimmerian’s youth. The art is by Greg Ruth and I like it very much.

Ruth also illustrated the Ethan Hawke Apache Wars graphic novel, Indeh, which was a disappointment — but not because of the art. I liked that very much, too.

So, I started scouting out the interwebs for more of Ruth’s work and stumbled upon an intriguing trail. Ruth illustrated a series of YA novels titled The Secret Journeys of Jack London. How can I resist a tale of Jack London that involves the Wendigo? It’s on it’s way up from the Bend Library…

Calendar (Mens Adventure Magazines): In recent years, I’ve had the pleasure of becoming friends with actress model Eva Lynd.

I started writing posts about her on this blog before I met her several years ago, when I learned that she was a favorite model of Al Rossi and Norm Eastman, two of the great artists who did illustration art for the men’s adventure magazines I collect and focus on here.

In this post, I’m happy to announce the Authorized 2019 Eva Lynd Calendar is now available.

Sensor Sweep: Gardner Fox, Manitou, Lost Race novels, Sagas of Midgard published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

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jennaschererwrites · 6 years

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2017: The Year of the Pop-Culture Female Gaze - Rolling Stone

For most of the history of cinema and television, women's place in the canon – as creators, as directors, as subjects, as viewers, as ratings and box office draws – was defined by its rarity. Men were the default: the default audience, the default protagonists, the default creative leaders.

But 2017 – in many ways a hellish year, in other ways a hell of a year, for women – has witnessed a sea change in the assumed standard point of view. This is the year that stories for, by and about women have begun to achieve a critical mass on TV, with established series continuing to thrive and a bumper crop of new shows filling the airwaves both on streaming services and traditional TV. Meanwhile, at the movies, women-helmed and -centric films from Wonder Woman to Lady Bird to Girls Trip have smashed critical and popular expectations.

It doesn't seem like a coincidence that the year of the Women's March, the year of the #MeToo movement, the year that those in charge of our government have made no bones about their dedication to eroding women's rights, is also the year that the female point of view has been reflected in a growing number of shows and movies. The patriarchy may still hold all the cards, but the stories we're telling ourselves as a society are beginning to shift away from that myopic, male-dominated viewpoint, reflecting and magnifying a moment when the culture is becoming ever more aware of its own biases.

Though of course, we've still got a long way to go. As Salma Hayek pointed out in a recent New York Times piece that detailed her own painful encounters with Harvey Weinstein and other male Hollywood moguls, only 4 percent of movie directors were female between 2007 and 2016. And late last year, Amazon unceremoniously canceled Dana Calvo's feminist period drama, Good Girls Revolt, after one season. But in the wake of Amazon Studio head Roy Price's resignation amid allegations of sexual harassment (which one of the show's actors called "horribly meta"), there have been calls to bring the show back from its early demise.

Back in 1975, feminist film critic Laura Mulvey coined the term "male gaze" to describe the heterosexual male point of view that was the default in most pop culture of the time (and – let's face it – most of today's, too). Mulvey used the phrase to draw attention to the idea that most mainstream movies – produced, written and directed by men, with male heroes – implicitly adopt that point of view too, regardless of who's actually doing the watching. Female characters, by extension, are engaged with insofar as they relate to men, which usually means they're either eroticized or shunted to the sidelines.

And now, it seems like we're finally witnessing the ascendance of the female gaze, a hard-to-pin-down term that has come to encompass much more than its opposite suggests. Whereas Mulvey stuck a pin in the male gaze to draw attention to a viewpoint that was presumed to be universal but was anything but, the term "female gaze" attempts to throw a lasso around a burgeoning and multifaceted aesthetic, and it's as different as the multitude of women's viewpoints that are coming to be shared.

Obviously the female gaze has been around long before this year, in the films of influential directors like Catherine Breillat, Jane Campion, Sally Potter, Ava Duvernay and Kathryn Bigelow, to name just a few. On the small screen, creators like Issa Rae (Insecure), Jenji Kohan (Weeds, Orange Is the New Black), Lena Dunham (Girls), Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) and Jennie Snyder Urman (Jane the Virgin) have been carving out a voice for women's stories — not to mention Shonda Rhimes's veritable empire on ABC (Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder). But it was 2017 when films and TV shows with women viewers in mind have finally, so late in history, become the rule rather than the exception to it.

The female gaze in 2017 is less about female desire, though that is one part of it. It's about spaces that belong to women, whether real or interior. It's about the angle of both the camera and the storytelling. It's about creating an aesthetic not so much in opposition to the male gaze, but rather unburdened by it. It's about – to borrow a phrase from 2017 political icon Maxine Waters – women reclaiming their time. Here's a rundown of just some of the bumper crop of women-centric movies and television shows that debuted in the past year.

Wonder Woman A Wonder Woman movie spent decades languishing in development hell before it finally landed in the hands of Monster director Patty Jenkins – and she turned out to be just the filmmaker for the job. In stark contrast to Zack Snyder's brooding, testosterone-jacked Superman movies, Jenkins and screenwriter Allan Heinberg brought a light and earnest touch to her take on the DC Comics' top Amazon, all while sacrificing none of the character's heroic gravitas. In a genre where female characters are frequently filmed in a way that emphasizes their sexuality rather than their ass-kicking abilities, Wonder Woman's action scenes are remarkable. Witness the way Jenkins films the Amazons' training sequence on Themyscira: a sea of powerful women battling in a way that emphasizes their skill and power, not shying away from showing the ripple of muscles or the wrinkle of age lines. Or the film's most iconic sequence, in which Gal Gadot's Diana Prince strides across a World War I battlefield, framed powerfully in the center of the shot as she deflects a hail of bullets. Female moviegoers turned out to see Wonder Woman in droves, and it's easy to see why: The film gave us a heroine who's strong, witty and gives no fucks about what the dudes around her think. As she famously declares when her sidekick/love interest Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) tries to stop her from putting herself in danger: "What I do is not up to you."

Lady Bird Coming-of-age movies seem to be a rite of passage for first-time filmmakers, but one a great one comes along, it can reach down into our emotional core like nothing else. Such is the case with Greta Gerwig's remarkable directorial debut, about a Sacramento teen's senior year of high school circa 2002. Lady Bird feels deeply personal and specific, while at the same time capturing something universal about the precipitous tipping point between girlhood and womanhood. As she explained to Rolling Stone: "I just don't feel like I’ve seen very many movies about 17-year-old girls where the question is not, 'Will she find the right guy' or 'Will he find her?'" Gerwig says. "The question should be: 'Is she going to occupy her personhood?' Because I think we're very unused to seeing female characters, particularly young female characters, as people." And that's precisely what the film does, giving generous amounts of space and air to exploring the shifting gradations in how Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) views herself in relation to those around her – particularly in her thorny but loving relationship with her mother (Laurie Metcalf).

Girls Trip Anyone who's still operating under the delusion that female-driven comedies don't sell need look no further than the box office numbers for Girls Trip, which had the highest gross of any comedy in 2017. Co-written by Tracy Oliver and Black-ish creator Kenya Barris, Girls Trip is a raunchy buddy-vacation comedy in the vein of The Hangover, except so much better than The Hangover. Featuring a powerhouse cast of African-American actors (Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith and Tiffany Haddish), it's a breezy frozen cocktail of a movie that balances an empowering message with unapologetically raunchy humor. As a self-help guru's book is titled in the movie, You Can Have It All – and in this case, "it all" includes both a rousing speech about black feminism and a scene in which Haddish's character gleefully demonstrates a bizarre sex act with a grapefruit and a banana. Something that Hollywood is only just starting to realize: Women like dirty jokes too – and we pretty much always have.

The Handmaid's Tale As dystopias go, few feel like they're breathing more intensely down our necks than Margaret Atwood's Gilead, a near-future American theocracy in which women have been stripped of all their rights and some forced into sexual slavery. Bruce Miller's adaptation of the seminal (or ovulary?) 1985 novel couldn't have come at a more apropos time in our nation's history. Eight out of The Handmaid's Tale's 10 episodes were directed by women – and it shows in the series' patient, intimate, unsettling aesthetic. Handmaid Offred's (Elisabeth Moss, in a devastating performance) life is charted in a series of elegant, painterly shots that range from her enduring both the boredom and the horror of her cloistered, degrading existence – the world as viewed by a woman literally blindered by the bonnet she's forced to wear.

Harlots "Money is a woman's only power in this world," brothel owner Margaret Wells (Samantha Morton) counsels her daughters in the first episode of this period piece, about prostitutes and madams surviving – and sometimes thriving – in the underworld of 18th-century London. Alison Newman and Moira Buffini's ITV/Hulu series is remarkable in that it's made by a large, entirely female creative team – a conscious choice by the showrunners, who aimed to present "a whore's-eye view" of sex and power. The result is a stylish drama that's by turns witty, salacious and devastating, in which women are heroes, villains and everything in between — and manipulating the men who believe they themselves hold the power is the means by which they climb. There's plenty of sex here, in many shades of gray; but unlike so many prostitution stories, the women who sell their bodies are the subjects rather than objects.

Alias Grace It's been a banner year for Margaret Atwood adaptations. And though it's gotten less buzz than The Handmaid's Tale, the CBC/Netflix miniseries based on Atwood's 1996 historical novel – based on the true story of a 19th-century servant accused of a double homicide – is its own kind of earth-shattering. Written by Sarah Polley and directed by Mary Harron (American Psycho), Alias Grace follows a series of interviews between Dr. Simon Jordan (Edward Holcroft) and the incarcerated Grace Marks (Sarah Gadon) as he tries to determine whether she's innocent or guilty. As Grace walks him through her life story – one filled with men trying to exert their power over her – she hides as much as she reveals, observing the ways in which Dr. Jordan observes her. "Just because you pestered me to know everything is no reason for me to tell you," she reflects privately. Harron reveals Grace's past in impressionistic jolts of memory, in which both the beauty and the violence of life for a lower-class woman in the 1800s is revealed in tiny details and moments.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino's long-anticipated return to TV (we're not counting the iffy GG revival, sorry) has come in the form this buoyant, razor-sharp Amazon comedy set in midcentury Manhattan. It follows the rise, fall and rise again of Miriam Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), an affluent Jewish housewife who stumbles into the boys' club of stand-up comedy with help from her unflappable agent, Susie (Alex Borstein). With Palladino's signature rapid-fire dialogue, Mrs. Maisel paints a compelling portrait of a woman giving 200-percent in both of her worlds, gradually awakening to the absurdity of the narrow boxes 1950s women were shoved into. "Men don't want to laugh at you; they want to fuck you," another woman comedian advises her, mirroring a reality that's sadly all too real for ladies in stand-up today.

I Love Dick Perhaps no show before or since has so self-consciously been about the female gaze as I Love Dick, Sarah Gubbins and Jill Soloway's (Transparent) highly stylized exploration of women's erotic eye. Based on Chris Kraus's 1997 novel, I Love Dick charts filmmaker Chris's (Kathryn Hahn) obsession with Dick (Kevin Bacon, perfectly cast), an alpha-male cowboy artist who turns her on even as she as repelled by him. The series' all-female directing team render Dick as an intricate lust object, becoming Chris's muse even as she relentlessly questions what it means to be a female artist in a male-dominated world. I Love Dick is also deliciously and unflinchingly twisted, transforming abstraction and theory into bizarre, memorable imagery.

GLOW Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch created the purgative feminist binge-comedy of 2017 with this throwback exploration of the world of women's wrestling circa 1985. It offers the pleasures of any great underdog making-the-band story, as a motley group of struggling actors and athletes come together to create a female wrestling show out of whole cloth (really shiny spandex cloth, in fact). Starring Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, Marc Maron and a large, diverse ensemble, GLOW is about women taking a form of entertainment meant to exploit women's bodies and transforming it into something empowering. The lady wrestlers of GLOW are on display in the ring, but they're also at the height of their power.

The Bold Type "Cool twentysomething lady who works at a magazine" is a tried-and-true rom-com trope, but showrunner Sarah Watson effectively blows the dust off it in this Freeform series inspired by the life of former Cosmo editor Joanna Coles. The Bold Type follows three up-and-comers (Katie Stevens, Aisha Dee and Meghann Fahy) at a magazine called Scarlet, but turns the usual stories about female journalists on their head. For one, their boss (Melora Hardin) is a supportive role model rather than a The Devil Wears Prada-style uberbitch. For another, the women are just as interested in their careers and their friendships as they are in the love interests that pass through their lives.

The Deuce The latest deep-dive ensemble series from The Wire's David Simon and George Pelecanos is a 360-degree take on the world of prostitution and porn in 1970s New York City. And in the hands of directors like Michelle MacLaren and Uta Briesewitz, it turns what could easily have been exploitative into an empathetic, unflinching probe into the lives of the women caught in the gears of the sex industry as well as the pimps and johns that keep them spinning. Key to this is Maggie Gyllenhaal's (who's also a producer) turn as Candy, a sex worker making her own way in the system who's also trying to juggle a life outside of it. The types of sex that's shown in The Deuce varies vastly, but more often than not it's the men who fade into the background. In one memorable scene, Candy rolls away from her lover to give herself the orgasm that he couldn't. "That was different," he remarks. "For you, maybe," she answers.

#jenna scherer #female gaze #2017 #feminism #tv #movies #rolling stone #the deuce #the bold type #glow #i love dick #the marvelous mrs. maisel #alias grace #harlots #the handmaid's tale #girls trip #lady bird #wonder woman #representation

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