I saw James Gunn’s SuperMan, twice, and the new Fantastic Four. While both movies are very different, they both gave me a sense of hope. A much needed feeling in today’s day. I don’t really like engaging with media that goes out of the way to make me feel bad. I’ve been through too much strife to then go out of my way to take in more of it. Some people don’t mind and some even find it cathartic; I do not. It’s why I couldn’t watch Game of Thrones after like 10 or so episodes, or why I can’t muster up the strength to watch I Saw the TV Glow. I know it’s amazing and I’d get more from it, me being trans, but nah, people saying they cried has me like ” NOPE. “, I’ll read about it, maybe. SuperMan and Fantastic Four was exactly what I needed, and I wasn’t expecting it.

To be honest, I never actually cared about SuperMan, was more into BatMan, until I met my wife. She turned me around on him. I didn’t completely understand his character until she explained it to me. I found it very endearing, and pretty close to how I try to navigate the world. For better or for worse. The DC universe is a little foreign to me because I was way more into MARVEL. I only followed Jack Kirby stuff when it came to DC stuff, and he often strayed from using the DC mainstays. All this to say, I went from not caring about SuperMan to really loving him and relating to him a lot. That’s what I think is the cool part about the new movie, it understands SuperMan more than any other movie before it. He’s relatable, and endearing, despite being an alien. He’s an immigrant, and indeed an American.

One thing that I always loved about SuperMan is that he manages to figure out a situation despite the odds. Yes he’s superhuman, but the things he has to deal with are way larger than him, yet he finds a way. That’s what makes him SuperMan. Not his powers. Although, the powers are a part of it, obviously. He prevails. He holds on to hope. That really resonates with me, because I have come up against things in life that seemed impossible to get through, but I held on to hope. Almost forcing myself to believe, because at times, it’s all I really had. This movie captures that really well. So did Fantastic Four.

They finally got the first family right. Not perfect, but right. I especially like Reed. He’s one of my all time favorite characters. I relate to him a lot, because I worry, obsess, fixate, yet I can be cocky, weird, and flashy. Although, the movie didn’t show much of Reed’s weird and more fun side. It was a pleasure to see the team work together and figure things out on the fly. They functioned as a well running machine. No matter the size of the obstacle, they figure out a way to succeed. They always have hope.

Both these movies have flaws, but I’m not writing a review or anything like that. I just wanted to say these two movies were neat and I hope the rest of the comic book movies lean into the comicbookiness of the source material. We, as in the world, needs more of this. Both movies tackled deeper subjects and both movies were still fun and uplifting. Not all of our media needs to be like this, but it’s nice having a reprieve. We need hope.

I guess I’ll do a mini run down on things I’ve been up to or in to. Starting with my current comic!

“My Very Own Waifu” is a comic I’ve been working on for some years now, off and on. It’s honestly been kicking my ass because I’ve been so busy and making time for it has been tough, mostly due to the constant rewrites I did. The subject matter can get very muddy and the current state of the world has caused me to go back and constantly adjust the writing, trying hard not to get my story confused, but at the same time trying not to be heavy handed. I’m so glad to say that I’m finally almost done. Like for real this time LOL. Can’t wait to make it live and finally close that work.

Speaking of the political climate, I’ve been trying to go out to protests. Trying to avoid the ones in bigger crowds; I don’t feel safe in those. We all gotta do what we can, in whatever way that is. There’s no room to sit back and watch the world burn. Not gonna talk more on this on this post, we need some sort of break from the constant bombard of disaster. So next on this post: I went to NY!

I chose this pic because we used to visit Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden all the time. I don’t miss NY, but I do miss certain things about NY. I’ll get into it in my vlog about NY. Oh yeah! LOL I started a youtube channel, like for real for real this time. I’m pretty proud with the vids I’ve made so far. It’s taking a while to get the latest one up. I got super busy pretty suddenly. It’ll be up soon tho. Here’s the link to my channel. If you haven’t already, please subscribe!

I’ve been making small marker art for friends and commissions. It’s kind of therapeutic, getting away from the computer. It’s also one of the ways I combat AI “art” by showing ppl the beauty in receiving artwork made by an actual human 🙂

I think that’s it for now. I just wanted to make an update, even it’s just a random ramble. Gonna make an effort to post more. Now, more than ever, I feel like we need to take it back to the times on the internet when we visited multiple sites, blogs, forums, places/spaces made by individuals and communities. As opposed to going to corporate stifled “social” media sites. With that said, please check in on this site, MY site, every now and then. I’ll try to keep it interesting <3 

My love for fighting games was born in Pathmark, Staten Island (it didn’t look that nice back then). The shops inside always had the newest cabs. I’d beg my mom to go play while she shopped/waited on line. A good bit of the mini shops inside the Pathmark had cabs. A lot of shops and bodegas throughout Staten Island had random cabs at the time, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary to see them. The Pathmark cabs were dope tho. It’s where I 1st played Street Fighter II, Street Fighter Alpha, and DARKSTALKERS!  

I remember clearly the 1st time I saw the original Darkstalkers cab in one of the shops. I heard the noises and music from the machine before I actually saw it. Seeing the characters move around for just a few seconds instantly captivated me. At that time I wasn’t allowed to stay by the cabs by myself yet, so I had to walk around with my mom while she shopped for groceries. The wait felt like eternity! I finally got to play while she was on the cash out line. I don’t remember if the line was long or not, but playing it that 1st time felt like time stopped. I was hooked, and kept thinking about it long after leaving.

Whenever I went back to those shops and tried the new games, I would also hear a bunch of Wu Tang songs playing from the shops. It became the soundtrack to my fighting game experience. To this day, whenever I play Vampire Savior, I automatically hear a random track off the 36 Chambers album play in my head. When you walked through the main entrance to that Pathmark, you had to walk by a few of the shops, so you could hear Wu Tang playing and noise from the cabs. It always felt like my mom was hurrying my brother and I along as to not annoy her to play. She always made sure to give us a chance to play when she could, even though she was always busy, and I appreciate that greatly and love her so much! I still can’t believe how on point she was for surprising us with Street Fighter Alpha on playstation as an Easter present. Like wut!? For Easter?!!? We were so hyped. Then on one of my birthdays she got me Vampire Savior on playstation! I was so shocked. When I started it up, I quickly realised it’s a bad port :((( but I still played that game a ton. I wouldn’t be surprised if the disc turned floppy and transparent.

My art style and choices are heavily influenced by the Darkstalkers series. Vampire Savior is my all time favorite fighting game and possibly my favorite game, for multiple reasons that I can go on about forever. I owe a lot to that Pathmark and my Staten Island childhood upbringing. Also my awesome, awesome, awesome mom. Darkstalkers reminds me of the 90s, SI, and my mom.

I hurt my hand and it’s taking a while to fully heal. I think I strained it from drawing for long stretches of time with little to no breaks. I’m working on a Fantastic Four mini fan comic. I’m also writing and thumbing out two other comics. More to come soon!