I've had a very dear friend of mine over for some time not long ago and we've spent quality time together. She read some of the already finished material from Blessed Days Ch5 so I'd get an impression on reader experience and watching her reactions live is really the most rewarding experience I've had in a long while. Now we're planning to get together and move in together. Maybe from October if all goes well. I spend every waking hour working on my comic and now It looks like I'll be in a relationship and living with someone. It'll certainly be a change. Ideally, by October, Ch 6 will finish publishing and I'll finish making the first chapter of the new saga (plus some material for a side-comic or two) and I'll reduce the amount of page updates / day or take it a bit slower, so I can practice being tolerable and an overall okay catch, while also continuing to tell the story of this imaginary family in my spare time.

InkyMoondrop wrote:
I've had a very dear friend of mine over for some time not long ago and we've spent quality time together. She read some of the already finished material from Blessed Days Ch5 so I'd get an impression on reader experience and watching her reactions live is really the most rewarding experience I've had in a long while. Now we're planning to get together and move in together. Maybe from October if all goes well. I spend every waking hour working on my comic and now It looks like I'll be in a relationship and living with someone. It'll certainly be a change. Ideally, by October, Ch 6 will finish publishing and I'll finish making the first chapter of the new saga (plus some material for a side-comic or two) and I'll reduce the amount of page updates / day or take it a bit slower, so I can practice being tolerable and an overall okay catch, while also continuing to tell the story of this imaginary family in my spare time.

Much congrats on that, Inky. Hope It'll work out for you👍

InkyMoondrop wrote:
I've had a very dear friend of mine over for some time not long ago and we've spent quality time together. She read some of the already finished material from Blessed Days Ch5 so I'd get an impression on reader experience and watching her reactions live is really the most rewarding experience I've had in a long while. Now we're planning to get together and move in together. Maybe from October if all goes well. I spend every waking hour working on my comic and now It looks like I'll be in a relationship and living with someone. It'll certainly be a change. Ideally, by October, Ch 6 will finish publishing and I'll finish making the first chapter of the new saga (plus some material for a side-comic or two) and I'll reduce the amount of page updates / day or take it a bit slower, so I can practice being tolerable and an overall okay catch, while also continuing to tell the story of this imaginary family in my spare time.

Congratulations on this new and exciting development.

Thank you both. :) I did not expect it either.

An interesting thing happened to be yesterday. Banes and Tantz know about it already:

I fell off a horse and lost consciousness and also had amnesia. I was doing a costume photoshoot.
The last thing I remember was that the thoroughbred had started to run and my leg was slipping.
Then I was standing, dressed fully in my normal clothes and pulling on my leather jacket. My costume was all neatly packed away… It's an elaborate outfit with a million pieces.

Apparently I was out cold for 2 minutes, then suddenly jumped up, refused offers of help and started to change gear, all the while asking “What just happened?” over and over- they'd tell me and I'd forget and then I'd ask again.
All that is a lost memory.


Never experienced anything like that before! That's the worst fall I've ever had off a horse too. All my own fault because I wasn't sitting right.
I didn't hit my head either! Judging from my injuries I went down hard onto my back and left side.

Oh dear! I hope you'll be okay. It must've been one hell of an experience. To be safe, you should get yourself checked out, but you know, we're glad you're still kicking, Steve.

InkyMoondrop wrote:
Oh dear! I hope you'll be okay. It must've been one hell of an experience. To be safe, you should get yourself checked out, but you know, we're glad you're still kicking, Steve.

Yup, I went to the hospital, they gave me a CT scan and an X-ray. No broken bones or spinal damage. Phew!

That could have been a whole lot worse! Glad you're feeling okay. Now about that 5000 bucks you said you were going to send to me, I haven't received it yet?

Ozoneocean wrote:

I fell off a horse and lost consciousness and also had amnesia.

Shocking and concerning–the outcome was really fortunate. Hopefully those lost memories will turn up somewhere.

Spooky! But glad you're okay, man - all things considered. I've heard stories of people who broke their neck and died just from falling off a chair. Accidents happen and can be devestating even in the most unlikely of cases if luck's just crule enough, and blessed are those who can come out of them without anything broken👍

That's really scary. Glad you are ok otherwise.

Yikes! Yeah, you were fortunate, because it could have been a lot worse. Several years ago, my (former?) best friend endured a brutally nasty head injury that caused some brain damage to her frontal lobe - took her months to not only recuperate, but she also had to relearn a bunch of simple executive functions that are like riding bicycles for the rest of us. Even now, although her mind works slightly differently than it did before, she knows she's still the same person, just a different version of the same person.

I've been told that the loss of memory could just be shock. I've had a few lapses after traumatic brain injury. So glad to hear you're all right though.

Dude! Be careful.
You should probably get rechecked in a week or so. Just to be sure

Thanks guys!
I don't know if the doc was free because it was an emergency or if my model paid for it. I was too out of it with pain.
My back is super sore, I scream just getting out of bed at the moment… but once I'm out I can more around better. Cant excise though because it's too painful. I still can't recall what happened during or just after the fall.

I wouldn't dare mention this on Twitter, since the last time I did, it only invited abuse onto me for having such an “unpopular opinion,” but I have to say, I am so glad to see there's something of a resurgence of more distinct and unique art styles in western animation again in recent years; these whole rubbery, big head, tiny body, round eye, bean mouth, noodle limbs, and extremely sharp and angular art styles that almost all of western animation has been indulging in in the last decade or so have gotten so tired and uninspiring.

Even though I despise them as a company and for a lot of their business practices, it's Disney who seems to be spear-heading this effort with some of their more recent offerings (well, except for AMPHIBIA, that is - that one definitely falls victim to the aforementioned bean-mouth style): THE OWL HOUSE, THE GHOST AND MOLLY MCGEE, and now HAILEY'S ON IT all have characters whose designs are not only unique, but also nicely detailed, which makes them appealing to look at, but also their backgrounds and scenics are so lush and captivating that they really pull you into their worlds and universes much in the same way shows like COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG way back when could . . . I especially love how Molly McGee's world is particularly visually interesting: the background designs are definitely stylized, but the color schemes and lighting gives them a touch of realism to counterbalance those stylized designs.

I've really missed this sort of thing about the cartoons I grew up watching in the 90s and 2000s

J_Scarbrough wrote:
I wouldn't dare mention this on Twitter, since the last time I did, it only invited abuse onto me for having such an “unpopular opinion,” but I have to say, I am so glad to see there's something of a resurgence of more distinct and unique art styles in western animation again in recent years; these whole rubbery, big head, tiny body, round eye, bean mouth, noodle limbs, and extremely sharp and angular art styles that almost all of western animation has been indulging in in the last decade or so have gotten so tired and uninspiring.

Even though I despise them as a company and for a lot of their business practices, it's Disney who seems to be spear-heading this effort with some of their more recent offerings (well, except for AMPHIBIA, that is - that one definitely falls victim to the aforementioned bean-mouth style): THE OWL HOUSE, THE GHOST AND MOLLY MCGEE, and now HAILEY'S ON IT all have characters whose designs are not only unique, but also nicely detailed, which makes them appealing to look at, but also their backgrounds and scenics are so lush and captivating that they really pull you into their worlds and universes much in the same way shows like COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG way back when could . . . I especially love how Molly McGee's world is particularly visually interesting: the background designs are definitely stylized, but the color schemes and lighting gives them a touch of realism to counterbalance those stylized designs.

I've really missed this sort of thing about the cartoons I grew up watching in the 90s and 2000s

That bean-mouth look is often called (derisively) the CalArts style. Apparently it's what CalArts teaches people when drawing cartoon characters. Personally, I hate how generic it is.

On that subject, here is a rather insightful article that basically sums up CalArts Style in a nutshell:

https://blog.displate.com/calarts-style/

But even if there are those of us who find this style to be childish, unoriginal, and generic, that apparently makes us the target of others who dismiss as being nothing but a bunch of “nostalgiatards” who automatically hate all newer animated shows because they're not what we grew up with . . . and, okay, I can understand why they have that mentality, but the thing of it is . . . animated shows just haven't been as good as the ones we grew up with . . . so many of them are either toned down, watererd down, sugar coated, safe shows, or just plain weird shows that seem to have no context to them whatsoever. At least cartoons of yesteryears had substance to them: they weren't just for kids, there was plenty of stuff that went over the kids' heads that could appeal to adults as well in sly, subtle, and clever ways - something that has generally become a lost art unto itself.

Oddly enough, these same defends of CalArts style like to argue that even cartoons in previous decades all looked the same as well . . . but to support their argument, they provide character designs from various shows that were produced by the same studios, so of course there are going to be some obvious similarities there . . . it's a pretty weak argument, But really, I miss the days when certain animation veterans had such a distinct art style to their work that you could easily identify something as a work of theirs - even if you've never seen it before - just based on how the overall animation looks.

dpat57 wrote:
That could have been a whole lot worse! Glad you're feeling okay. Now about that 5000 bucks you said you were going to send to me, I haven't received it yet?

I'm sure I sent it while I was out haha!

bravo1102 wrote:
I've been told that the loss of memory could just be shock. I've had a few lapses after traumatic brain injury. So glad to hear you're all right though.

From what I know of how the brain works I'd guess that things weren't fully functioning yet after the unconsciousness- Memory wasn't turned on yet.
Apparently the first thing I did after jumping up was ask what happened. Then after they told me I asked again, and again… a total of 5 times. XD

–

The type of animation I grew up with was so varied- Disney movie stuff from the 40s and 50s, Warner Brothers Loonytunes classics, various garbage from Hannah Barbara, 1970s anime from Speed Racer and Battle of the Planets and so, so much more… I have no attachment to it.

Compared to all those styles the bean-mouth look was very un-varried because everything started using it. I don't mind it, I just found it a bit heavily used.

The animation style I actively hated - which I WILL get hate for if I post about it widely- was the retro style that was in Ren and Stimpy. Animation had been improving and changing and getting better in so many ways and then Ren and Stimpy came along and dragged it all back to the late 50s again! So much animation from the 90s and 2000s owes its style to that show.
Pre-Bean-mouth.

Not just memory. Cognition. Your brain couldn't process the answes to your question. It's like after I was concussed in a fistfight. You literally cannot comprehend language let alone process it. I had to ask which way was down because I couldn't figure it out. That's why EMS immediately try to get you to count or ask your name or who the president is. I knew the president, but couldn't count. Could access facts, but not sequence.

Worst part about this is I didn't learn by reading about it, but experiencing it and then talking with doctors. Like I have no memory of the fight except flying across the room, sitting down and next I know him telling me to fall down and I ask him which direction was down.

Rolling my car there's nothing between the thought I'd avoided traffic and then upside down in the harness, broken glass and blood. Nothing of going off the road, running over two signs and the car rolling three times until the stop at the telephone pole.

So I've been there a couple of times amd had to endure doctors questions and answers to my questions about how my mind reacted. And would I ever quite be right in the head ever again. Never managed to get that back. I sincerely hope you do. You are a good friend and I can't help but worry.

Sorry to go on like this but it helps me process things in that little big of mind that remains.

Remember that episode of ROCKO'S MODERN LIFE where Rocko was forced to stay up all night to fix an error on a shipment of comic books where the superhero bunny on the cover had the wrong number of whiskers? In the real world, wouldn't such a mistake actually make the comic more valuable?

Okay . . . I had to do this. I just had to.

bravo1102 wrote:
Not just memory. Cognition.

Sounds about right! I hope you've done no permanent damage after all those accidents man.

bravo1102 wrote:
I sincerely hope you do. You are a good friend and I can't help but worry.

Thankyou! You're a very good friend too

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Remember that episode of ROCKO'S MODERN LIFE where Rocko was forced to stay up all night to fix an error on a shipment of comic books where the superhero bunny on the cover had the wrong number of whiskers? In the real world, wouldn't such a mistake actually make the comic more valuable?

I LOVED that show back in the day… The perfect antidote to shitting Ren and Stimpy.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Okay . . . I had to do this. I just had to.

Ew, coconut water is also like piss XD
They kept giving me coconuts to drink from when I got sick in Cambodia. Made me feel worse…

—————

Crap words that peole should stop using:

Swag.

Use it for it's original meaning, i.e. a big duffel bag. NOT for the two modern 2000s meanings that are SHIT: low quality promotional items masquerading as “merchandise” or short for “swagger”.

Ozoneocean wrote:
I LOVED that show back in the day…

I was the only one who did, and same goes for COW AND CHICKEN; nobody else liked either of those shows, because they thought they were “too gross” or “too stupid.” Anytime somebody would ask me what my favorite shows were and as soon as I mention either of them, the response was always the same: “EWWW!”

What kills me is that in recent years, people my age actually look back fondly on those show for no reason other than nostalgia . . . where was any of the love for those shows back in the day? Then again, those shows seemed to have more popularity overseas than they did here in Murka . . . hell, COW AND CHICKEN even had merchandise over in the UK that we never had here.

J_Scarbrough wrote:

Ozoneocean wrote:
I LOVED that show back in the day…

I was the only one who did, and same goes for COW AND CHICKEN; nobody else liked either of those shows, because they thought they were “too gross” or “too stupid.”

I loved Cow and Chicken because it gave us I am Weasel with Michael Dorn (Worf from TNG) I actually know all the words to the opening jingle and I often call stupid people baboons after I.R. Baboon.

Also loved how absolutely twisted Rocko's Modern Life was. It was really hard for me to watch anything because of my work schedule back then.

Hahaha! I didn't like I Am Weasel, Cow and Chicken or Ed Edd, and Eddy, Catdog, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Hohnny Bravo… etc

I LOVED Rocko's Modern Life though, it was obviously a safer, cleaner, more commercial version of what Ren and Stimpy started, but I loved it. It just struck all the right notes as well as being clever and sly.

But those Cartoon Network shows just didn't really do it for me. I could watch them but never loved them. (except for Michael Dorn's voice as the Weasel.)

The other shows from then I LOVED were Dexter's Lab, Angry Beavers, and Argh Real Monsters.
Powerpuff girls, Samurai Jack, and Rugrats get a special mention back when they were still good… Well Samurai Jack always was, but PowerPuf Girls and Rugrats got massively dumbed down and reworked to appeal to very young kids.

I actually have a Johnny Bravo refrigerator magnet. I loved the first episode with him thrust into a Scooby-Doo adventure (jinkies?) After that it got really lame and the same story again and again. Dexter was one of my favorites. The penultimate episode with the various Dexter's grouping up to fight Mandark was fabulous. Also loved the musical episode with Paul Williams. Liked the first Powerpuff Girls especially MOJO Jojo . I saw an episode of the anime version where they remade the Powerpuff Girls into into a type of magical Girl. They had more personality
But again it was really hard to watch them because of my job schedule.

I could often see Courage the Cowardly Dog as it came on after 10pm after I'd gotten off the afternoon shift. I liked how they twisted horror movie tropes and occasionally got surreal. It inspired a few horror scripts that I haven't produced yet.

Speed racer



Late night speed racer!




That's what got me into animes

I was definitely more of a Cartoon Network kid growing up than I was Nickelodeon. Don't get me wrong, in addition to ROCKO'S MODERN LIFE, I would also occasionally watch other Nicktoons like HEY ARNOLD! and CATDOG, and I did enjoy the live-action shows like KENAN & KEL and the original ALL THAT!, but Cartoon Network shows always won out with me in the end, and in recent years, I think I've figured out why: Cartoon Network gave the show creators more leeway and creative freedom to do whatever they wanted with their shows (so long as it didn't violate any network censorship of course), whereas Nick usually called all of the shots themselves, and that remains a problem even to this day.

I was at art school and university back then so my hours were odd.
The main reason I didn't like Courage the Cowardly Dog was that the story was based on the fairy tail of dog that barks and is dismembered till it finally shuts up and when it does the old woman is killed. I hate that story…

I loved Mojo Jojo too because his voice reminded me of Mako. Weird that they didn't get him for that since he worked on Samurai Jack and Dexter's lab. Probably cost too much.

———-

Speed Racer was good, but for me Battle of the Planets (or was it called G-force?), was my first intro to anime. I loved that show so much as a little kid.

———-

My impression of the Cartoon Network stuff was that they were throwing crap at the wall and hoping it stuck. They had less oversight but less quality and polish too.
The Nikelodean stuff was sleeker, a lot was too sleek, yes, but a lot was very well done.