When I was growing up in the 80s, stories that were marketed as ‘children’s' were occasionally brutal.
Characters got maimed or killed, tortured or traumatized, met with horrid ends in worlds that were anything but rosy. And this was a pattern that wasn't limited to, say, English literature ...
Children's Stories
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Sept. 18, 2021Rooting for the bad guy
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Sept. 11, 2021
Normally in stories there is the hero vs the villain or the protagonist vs the antagonist. As the audience, we generally expect to root for the hero or the protagonist and hope for the villain's or antagonist's comeuppance.
But there come those times when we find ourselves rooting ...
On Using 'Shortcuts'
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, June 26, 2021
One of the latest twitter dramas seem to be around artistic shortcuts, and how consumers of comics and webcomics (often non-artists) tend to scoff at any artist that dares admit they use them.
Comic shortcuts could include pre-rendered backgrounds, using 3D programs to arrange spaces or make sure perspective is ...
The Problem With Forgiveness
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, May 29, 2021
Forgiveness is a wonderful thing. It's an emotion, it's a state of mind, it's a process.
It's a process that takes at least two parties to even begin to happen.
The problem is that in life and in fiction, this is often misconstrued as something that ...
The Highway to Hell
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Nov. 14, 2020
Unless they are an old-timey Disney villain or similarly classic cartoon villain, nobody wants to be evil or bad starting off. Nobody's ambition is to be the villain in their own story. (note I say ‘villain’ and not ‘antagonist’)
Everyone is out to be the hero.
So why aren ...
Revisionist Historical Fiction
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, May 30, 2020
So over here on Greek TV, there's this very popular drama series that happens to be set in a Greek mainland village in the 1950s, and sells itself as ‘authentically representing an era’. It started off very promising, as a crime drama + family drama kind of story where three ...
So I Finally Saw the Joker...
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Nov. 23, 2019
It so happens that as I write these lines, I have a terrible headache. So I can't gather my thoughts enough for the third installment of my discussion of motivations and ideologies and actions, but I think I'm good to write what I'd promised- my review of ...
Sympathy for the Devil
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Oct. 19, 2019
So of course the new Joker movie is quickly becoming a cultural phenomenon. Not only because it has made a ton of money already, but because of the spin on the infamous character of Joker.
Through Joachim Phoenix's Joker we get to watch the origin story of a villain ...
On Belief
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, July 20, 2019
So I watched Hacksaw Ridge the other day (okay it was yesterday) and it was impressive.
Not so much as a movie (though that was quite decent) but the story. The story was amazing.
It's about a man named Desmond Doss who enlists in the army during WWII to ...
Beginner offense
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, June 29, 2019
I've mentioned before in other articles how Twitter, and often comics/art Twitter especially, can be a total dumpster fire with flame wars erupting every two hours or so.
There have been many analyses on why this is happening, from efforts of established comic creators to gatekeep the field ...