Happy 30th Anniversary! This Is The Linework I Did For @rockmiyabideusexmachina And His Mega Man 30th

So I suddenly developed a much greater appreciation for the Mega Man Mastermix #3 variant cover by Josh Perez when I realized it was a tribute to Rock & Rule.

Everything from the 90s on has been cavorting around like this.

From “The Choice” (Oct. 1964. Laugh Comics, Issue #163)

“Haltmann Works confirmed in a press release earlier today that the corporation’s R&D department suffered an unfortunate accident yesterday evening after hours. It emphatically denied any official interest in cloning technology, however, and refused to answer any questions about the sudden appearance of an army of His Majesty’s genetic duplicates in the wee hours of the morning.”

Kirby: Star Allies (2018)

Fandom sucks.

More than normal, I mean.

While fandom has always been a little bit crazy, it’s hard to deny that it has gotten exponentially worse in the past few years.

From the simple toxicity in fandom discourse increasing, to death threats made towards creators if they don’t toe the line the fandom wants, to groups of fans creating little brigades to ‘protect’ their fandom (see: harassing anyone they don’t like under the guise of morality), it’s gotten pretty bad.

The question is, why?

Well, if you read that headline up there, you’ll know I’m about to tell you why.

The answer is religion, or specifically, the lack of religion in the lives of millennials and the new generation.

Now, before you close this tab, lemme clarify: this isn’t about how the downswing of religion has corroded the moral fiber, or anything. It’s more interesting than that. And complex.

Religion has a function in society. It serves a purpose. This is true regardless of ones own beliefs. Unlike the existence or non-existence of any sort of supreme deity, the functions of religion have been thoroughly documented and studied. If you want a more thorough breakdown beyond the summary I’m about to give, go read Émile Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life.

Religion acts as a support system and a shared moral system. As a result, religion is something of a ‘cultural shorthand’. Finding out someone’s religion quickly tells you a great many things about them. This is useful in social interactions, as it quickly tells you who you’re more likely to get along with. To put it in a bit of a primitive way, it makes it easy to find one’s ‘allies’.

If one is Catholic, and meets another Catholic, they instantly know they share a great many beliefs about life, justice, morality and the like. If one is in an entirely new place, finding the local congregation of their own religion is a fast way to build a support network from zero. These are important functions.

And with religion out of vogue, especially among the youth, something had to fulfill that function. It’s important and necessary. One of the things that has usurped this function is incredibly specific political labels. While highly specific terms for one’s political beliefs have always existed, they broke into the mainstream far more than they ever had before in the recent decade. They usurped that function of cultural shorthand, one’s own specific political identifier essentially became a flag one waved while attempting to find like minded people. That’s fine.

What isn’t fine is that fandom has also usurped the function of religion for a large amount of people. Fandom is, frankly, not capable of acting in this manner, and the result is the explosion of atrocious fandoms full of toxicity and at times outright criminality and violence. Most works of fiction have something to say, but few if any present an entire system of morality. Yet despite this, many treat it as such. Therein lies the problem.

Religion inherently has a barrier to entry. It’s (often, not always, it varies by religion) a simple barrier, but a barrier nonetheless. You have to live by the religion’s rules and moral system. In a way, this can be considered payment for the support system the religion offers. If you’re not a believer, you don’t get in. Pretty simple. That’s how it retains it’s usefulness as an identifier. Knowing someone was a Catholic wouldn’t matter if they didn’t have to follow the rules.

(And yes, many religions do charitable work even for those outside their faith, I’m well aware, this is all in the abstract.)

Fandom doesn’t have any such barrier. You like the thing, you’re in. It ultimately has no use whatsoever as a cultural/societal identifier. If you like the same TV show, or anime, or video game as someone else it means….well. Basically nothing. There’s no guarantee you share anything else with them at all.

As a result, people who attempt to use fandom in this way ultimately get a rude awakening, and end up encountering someone they dislike. Or hate, even. And that’s where the problem starts.

The revelation that their fandom do not uniformly believe the same things is not often taken well. Rather than realizing that one’s choice in media is no guarantee of anything else about them, they develop the belief that this person they dislike is not a real fan. They’re fake. They’re seeking to harm the fandom. They’re the enemy. And if it’s the creator? Oh boy, does shit go off then.

Ultimately, these people project their own personal beliefs and morality onto a work of fiction that doesn’t, and never did, support them. They adopt the completely ludicrous expectation that any other fan they meet must be just like them, and believe all the same things as them. Anyone who doesn’t is a real fan, and has to be destroyed. And that person is now a toxic fan, the kind that’ll harass, send death threats, and blackmail or threaten the creators.

And the problem is only going to get worse. Online communication and support is only going to become a bigger and bigger part of people’s lives going forward. That’s why there’s a clear level of escalation in ‘bad’ fandoms. People who are more and more ‘online’ are making up the majority of these fandoms, and lacking any other traditional support network or thing to identify as, become these toxic fans.

So the question becomes; how to fix it?

Well, like any widespread sociological problem, there isn’t an easy answer. Lord knows I’m not smart enough to figure one out.

But most of these people are children.

Adults reading this do have some degree of responsibility to try and guide them into more responsible and healthy behavior, and criticize them when they fall into toxicity. Will all of them listen? Of course not. God knows I never listened to adults when I was a teenager.

But some of them will, and if the toxic cesspool that is modern fandom can be even slightly purified, it’s worth it to try.

Worldbuilding Practice Sample

So, a while ago I wrote some sample dialog for Injustice 2 interactions that will never happen, and I happen to have a great affection for DC characters in general. Unsatisfied as I am with the current state of affairs in DC, I got in the habit of writing little plots and ideas on the side, and after several years basically wound up composing my own version of the DC cosmos, an Earth-J, if you will.

This is a sample of the work I've done so far.

The Living Kingdoms

The Red -- Fauna Parliament: Limbs Representatives: Animal Masters, who can use either the physical or metaphysical aspects of animals as super powers. Much to the Red's chagrin, however, they can't manage to keep a champion like the Green's Swamp-Thing; their main choice, Bernhard Baker, doesn't really care.

Bernhard "Buddy, Animal Man" Baker Supposed Champion of the Red, much to his chagrin. Also much to the Red's chagrin, since he keeps not observing his duties. His power is to trade metaphysical qualities with animals via homologous and analogous structures. (i.e. he can give his arms the power of flight, because that's what birds do with those parts). Notes:  He occasionally has jam sessions with Garfield. Quotes: "You are a Champion of the Red! You bring fruition to thousands of years of prophecies!" "I AM A FAMILY MAN, FIRST!" -P.o.L. & Buddy Maxine Baker Even more powerful than Buddy, even less interested. She just likes her pretty animals. She thinks Tefé is awesome. Garfield “(Various)” Logan The Orphan, and Evolution-Master. Unloved by the Red and the Parliament of Limbs (individual members notwithstanding), Gar nonetheless wields impressive power and serves with the Doom Patrol (formerly with the Titans). Ironically, he gets along the best with the Green and its masters; there is some speculation that he may not even be totally wedded to the Red, given he has instantiated microscopic life, a distinctly Blue power. What significance this has remains currently unexplored. Mari "Vixen" McCabe The trickster. An Animal Master who received the Tantu Totem originally created by the malicious trickster god Ogo, and won it from him in a contest of wits.

Barbara Ann "Cheetah" Minerva Slave of Mafdet and enemy of Wonder Woman. Barbara lived a charmed life, born with a silver spoon in her mouth, charismatic, beautiful, enterprising, astonishingly lucky, but in her dissatisfaction grew to covet more. Inspired by Wonder Woman's godly power, she tried to steal Mafdet's Claw from an ancient pyramid to experiment on it and see if it had any divine power, which infuriated the goddess Mafdet, who punished her -- upon hearing the punishments for thievery was mutilation, flogging, or death by staking, Barbara chose the fourth option, penal servitude, and became Mafdet's executioner, the Cheetah, by having a portion of the Red injected into her. Now Barbara spends her time alternating between punishing the guilty for her goddess and conspiring to free herself. Notes: She has tried previously to rewrite her own body to shed her cheetah form, but analysis of her cells indicated she was still physiologically human, all evidence to the contrary.

Michael Payson "B'wana Beast" Maxwell

Dominic "Freedom Beast" Mndawe

Robert "Man-Bat" Langstrom

Ogo, Mafdet, and all other animal and animal-aspect gods like have connections to the Red.

The Green -- Flora Parliament: Trees Representatives: Plant Masters, who have authority over the growth and behavior of vegetation. The usage of their power is often accompanied by the bodily manifestation of plant life.

Dr. Alec Holland, the Swamp Thing Appointed champion of The Green. Due to his appointment by the Green, he is also possessed of some authority over the earth.

Tefe Holland, the Sprout. Beyond her powers as the second instance of the Swamp Thing, she also has magic due to her mother and celestial powers due to inheriting Constantine's blood. Despite terrible family issues, she eventually warms up to Maxine as a surrogate big sister. Notes: Has been considered for the Doom Patrol, though her current relationship with them is unknown.

Solomon Grundy The death of a gangster in Slaughter Swamp created an "incomplete" Swamp Thing, with limited, wild power over the wood and earth. Poison Ivy & The Floronic Man, Shadows of the Champion. Drs. Pamela Isley and Jason Woodrue, who gained access to The Green and its powers through mad science, which transformed them both into plant-humanoids. Woodrue, descended from dryads, taught Isley and the Hollands as their Professor ("Professor Plant-Master"), and sought to escape "the meat". Woodrue seeks to make the world less-frail by experimenting on them (as he constantly augments himself for their qualities and powers). Isley, who runs "Lily n' Rose" flower shop, was at one point his partner in crime, covets beautiful things and despises "the meat" for its ugliness, a "toxic" ugliness that ruins the beauty around it; in a perverse sense she considers herself a "defender of the innocent", much like her historic enemy Batman.

Yggdrasil, the first Wood elemental.

The Blue - Microbes (bacteria, protozoa, fungi, etc.) Parliament: Germs Representatives: Microbe Masters, who can both control all such life remotely and transform into huge masses of microbial life at will.

Samuel "Zookeeper" Register Obtained his access to the powers of the Kingdom by stealing from Garfield Logan's charged DNA, but while he initially dealt in animals like Garfield Logan, Register has been increasingly fascinated with transforming into infectious and disease-carrying life forms, which he uses to various purposes, including taking control of animal life. He's also been looking with increasing fascination to the Grey.

The Grey -- Viruses Parliament: None. While the Grey is no one's friend, it is generally closest to the Blue. Lacking any Parliament to manage it, responsibility is generally shared by the other three. Representatives: Plague Masters, who seed and control all viruses remotely. Anton Arcane A German field doctor from the Great War who did mad science on his patients. Helped convince Adolf Hitler to go to war so he'd have more dead to work with. He uses black magic for purposes of necromancy.

Note on All Kingdoms: The Kingdoms all traffic with each other in various ways, but generally maintain a balance of some kind. However, there are periods of violent imbalance in their history, where one color will consume too much of the others (typically but not always the Grey, due to poor management) and the whole system collapses in on itself, creating the Black.

This is from the forecast discussion of Major Hurricane Florence from this afternoon. As a meteorologist, when I saw this, my heart sank. They don’t use wording like this for every storm.

Florence is going to be a devastating. There will be huge amounts of flooding, both from inland rain and from costal storm surge. Winds are going to be some of the strongest you can get from a hurricane. People within the path of this storm could lose everything.

If you know anyone who lives on the North or South Carolina coast, tell them that if there’s an evacuation ordered, they need to get the hell out. Do not take chances with this one.

ARE YOUR POSTS NOT SHOWING UP? THIS SHOULD FIX IT:

so as this post says, if you'r finding your blog is all jumbled, old posts popping up to the front, new posts not showing up at all, etc it is because of those posts being flagged and then unflagged. all you have to do is open them to edit and save them again and they’ll go back. 

i just wanted to make this separate post to add that once you do that all your new posts will go back to being visible at the top of your blog as they should be i just did it and now everything’s fine on my blog. 

URGENT

I’m honestly in tears. I am incredibly upset, I am shaking, I am furious. I need this post to reach as many people as possible, because I want everyone to be aware about this and we need to work together to help bring this young girl home safely. I have a lot of followers so I’m hoping this will spread quickly so more people are aware of this.

This is Kennedi High. You may have seen her circling through your dashboard. She’s 16 years old and she has gone missing, and so far everyone has pieced together through her snapchat story that something is really, really wrong. She’s acting funny, and recently her snapchat story has been updated: “I’m with this other man and he telling me I’m never going back home to see my family.” A lot of people think this may be a case of sex trafficking, and it most likely is, and I’m honestly terrified for her. 

She’s originally from Baltimore, MD, though it’s said that she may currently be in the Mountain View California region. Please spread this if you can, reblog any other posts you find about her and get this story out. I’m absolutely sickened and shaken and I just want her to be safe. This is so important to me.

Not to mention, there’s been reports of over 64,000 black girls missing across the United States, and it’s most likely due to sex trafficking. 64,000 black girls. That’s just crazy. This is terrifying and needs more media coverage, this needs to be spread everywhere. We need to protect black girls. They need our help.

If you guys have any more information to add to this post or correct, please please feel free. I’ll try to add any other updates I find on the situation. In the meantime, if you can, please this reblog or any other posts relating to Kennedi and spread the word. Tell everyone about it. This needs everyone’s attention.

Hidden landscapes the heatwave is revealing

Imprints of old and ancient settlements not seen in known memory are emerging from the soil as the heat takes its toll on greenery.

Britain’s warm mid-eighties temperatures dredge up old baggage.

Barring, of course, the sporadic misfire of whatever bots Tumblr is employing to target posted art.

Remember: Flagged posts can be appealed.

So, to clarify what’s going to happen, here’s a handy checklist:

What will happen

Images of real-life nudity will be flagged

Flagged posts will be only viewable by the poster and nobody else

Flagged posts can be appealed and fixed if done so by mistake

That’s it

What will not happen

Blogs will not be indiscriminately deleted

Posts will not be indiscriminately deleted

Written smut will not intentionally be flagged

Illustrated or otherwise artistic nudity will not intentionally be flagged

Tumblr’s RP community, SFW or otherwise, will not implode upon itself