The Phenakistoscope

https://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/185634027517/odditiesoflife-incredible-vintage-animated-gifs

Another Tumblr Find...

http://theartofanimation.tumblr.com/post/180224956722/鍾離-華蟲-httpswwwweibocomu2250549785

A Funny Funny

Subtle Animation

Unfortunately, I could not find an attribution for these cool GIFs. I came by them on Tumblr, of course.

http://lyrafay.tumblr.com/post/177680094397/seafoamgreeen-song-of-the-sea

Other People's Amusing Hobbies

http://lyrafay.tumblr.com/post/177115750802/somecanadianperson-i-love-pausing-disney-movies

Jemma Solume

The design here reminds me of stained glass telling a story around the windows of a church. (I also enjoy the artist's oxboxer handle.)

http://lyrafay.tumblr.com/post/176493509682/theartofanimation-jemma-salume

The art of Sculpture

I'm sorry I don't have attributions for these amazing sculptures. Temporary Tangents gathered them on his Tumblr.

http://terri104.tumblr.com/post/170992086593

The Blending Art: "Twister"

Runaways: Season 1, Episode 2: "Rewind" // Volume 1, Issue # 2, "Pride and Joy"

Now, this is the type of art I would like to learn how to do. In this animated gif,
summersocietyvp (someone I now follow on Tumblr) has taken a brief clip from the new Hulu series Runaways and married it up with a panel from the original source text, a comic of the same name by Brian K. Vaughan (words) & Adrian Alphona (images).

I particularly like the design choices that went into this piece of art. First, keeping the frame from the source panel constant throughout the gif reinforces the logic of the comic being the source text that encapsulates the new video adaptation.

Second, I like how the video clip has just enough frames to generate movement (to make it clear that it is a video clip and not a still picture) but not so many as to overwhelm the gif and distract from the comic panel frame. (This also keeps the gif short for any attention-deficited viewers.)

I also like the touch of leaving the speaking balloon in place when switching from the comic panel to the video clip but changing the text content in the speaking balloon to create a sense of linear logic flow: the greeting in the comic panel balloon ("Oh, hey, Mom") is followed by the logical follow-up question: "How was the meeting?" in the video clip balloon.

Runaways (2003) Issue #2

Also, summersocietyvp manages to blow up the comic panel large enough to fit the video clip without losing too much quality in that comic panel image. And, the decision to cut out the door frame from the source panel to reveal the edge of the Twister game and the video image (of an AT-AT Walker from The Empire Strikes Back) on the TV within the video clip is masterful.

I have read the comic, but I don't have Hulu and thus have not seen the series yet. However, this gif does suggest that the TV series honors the original source text while still adapting the story into something new. That's good advertising, if you ask me.

Neo-Punk Pumpkin Bear

Neo-Punk Daredevil by thepumpkinbear

I love trying to look up the people I encounter through Tumblr.

First, most of the blog names are great: kitchenwitchcraft, shankinzombie, superheroesincolor, & thepumpkinbear to name a few.

Plus sufficient bio data is rarely available on the site, so a Google search becomes necessary.

Usually, since I tend to follow artists or people who love art, I discover their similarly named Twitter, Instagram, and/or Deviant Art sites (though, sometimes the bio data found on them is minimal as well).

And I find I -- as an old fogie -- typically have to look up terms and cultural references used by the Tumblrs because I am that far out of the loop these days.

Case in point, thepumpkinbear's redesigns for some of Marvel's main characters in what thepumpkinbear denotes as a "neo-punk" style. I looked up neo-punk online and found little beyond the root words' definitions on the traditional dictionary sites: "new" + "punk."

The Urban Dictionary offers little better (in part because it seems very little consensus exists on a definition for the term). However, despite my lack of understanding as to what constitutes "neo-punk," I enjoyed thepumpkinbear's re-visioning of these Marvel characters embedded below.

http://thepumpkinbear.tumblr.com/post/164743699616/marvels-neopunk-did-this-for-fun-but-i

Jade Mere

Digital Archangel by Jade Mere
(my title for this piece; apologies to Jade Mere)

One of the things I like best about Tumblr is being introduced to new art and artists through the various individuals I follow on the site.

For example, theartof
animation.tumblr.com often collects artists' original works and then posts a collage of the art while adding links to the artists and their works on various sites around the web. The result is a curated exhibition of some mighty talented art folks.

The post I ran across today features art by Jade Mere, an illustrator from the Pacific Northwest (brief bio here). I pulled the piece above from artofanimation's collection in part because I am currently bingeing on Supernatural with all of its angels & demons.

I also really like how the digital sequence overlayed on the figure's black wings and pants is the only color in the piece; the rest is grayscale. The figure's posture appears to be that of rest or mourning while the wings are positioned as if they are enfolding the figure in their protective shell. I think it is unclear whether the digital sequence is part of the comfort or part of what the figure is trying to escape.

Below is the original post with links to more of Jade Mere's art:

http://theartofanimation.tumblr.com/post/169420563433/jade-mere-httpjademeretumblrcom

SciFi, Fantasy, Comics, Etc.: The Intellectuals' Head Candy

Lego Catwoman Logging onto Her Laptop

Were I to engage in labeling myself one way or t'other, I would probably end up somewhere in the SJW camp, but not for the reasons the anti-SJW camp might suggest.

I want brain candy. I want texts, & movies, & art to challenge my thinking and stimulate new thought. I want to explore all the possibilities of being.

Despite my love of comics, which are often recursive and sometimes downright repetitive in their storytelling, I read them to discover the moments of "awe" hidden in them that cause my brain to rewire former connections and build new, unexpected pathways.

And, well, the old paradigms the anti-SJWs seem to exert a great amount of time, energy, and animosity defending just don't extend the story. The protagonists are the same, the devils are the same, and the payoffs take one nowhere that one has not already been.

That's not to say that genre fiction isn't also political for me. As brainstatic suggest in his/her/their post on Tumblr: SciFi, Fantasy, Comics have always served as part allegory reflecting the cultural "hot zones" of the zeitgeist of the time in which they were created.

(Though, I would add that the Clone Army in Star Wars, 

who function primarily as cannon fodder, are designed on 

the genetic material of an indigenous person of color.)

Lego Catwoman Cursing at Her Laptop

The characteristic of SJWs the anti-SJW could accurately ascribe to me, though, is intellectual snobbery. But that is only because, as a former teacher of English, I think it is the moral obligation of intellectually capable humans beings to actually develop their god-given capacity to reason.

So I insist that people who claim reason actually employ reason. Go figure.

Too cute to pass up...

http://lyrafay.tumblr.com/post/141168000027/tastefullyoffensive-dad-turns-his-6-month-old

source

Andy Fairhurst (artist)

I love the combination of kid-size figures with the iconography of classic heroes. Andy Fairhurst, an artist from North Wales, has many more of these pieces on his deviant art page that you can check out here. He also has a set of "geek kids" that is pretty cool, too.

http://superherostatuesfan.tumblr.com/post/130869466115/if-the-kids-are-united-then-well-never-be

Glass-Plate Photos into Art

http://lyrafay.tumblr.com/post/126648858387/jedavu-historic-glass-plate-photos-from-romania

Morning Pick-Me-Up: Little Kids Cosplaying

http://lyrafay.tumblr.com/post/123787984082/alicexz-if-youre-ever-feeling-a-bit-down-just

Animated Comic Covers

There are two talents I wish I had: (1) the capacity to carry a tune and (2) the ability to draw. I don't wish I had these talents in order to earn money at them or become famous by them. I just like to sing (though my brother likens my singing to a cow mooing), and I liked to draw simple cartoons as a kid. (I liked coloring them the best, though. I am a huge fan of coloring.) An example of my work:

An Aged & Coffee-Stained Example of a Drawing From
My High School Days: "Captain Chemistry"

A Cleaned Up Version of "Captain Chemistry"
(That Took Entirely Too Long to Tidy Up in Adobe FireWorks)

Not only am I a complete dork for drawing about a Captain of Chemistry, I still chuckle at my efforts to infuse the word "chemistry" with a Bunsen burner, a measuring glass, and a carbon ring. Like The Doctor, I thought I was clever.

I also came up with a name for my comic strip (the one that I have yet to actually create): "The short End." (<-- The "short" is deliberately un-capitalized to emphasize its shortness, and it comes from the adage: "The short end of the stick.")

While I lack both the talent and physical capacity to be the cartoonist I once imagined being, I still look for ways to be "artistic." I tend towards synthesis rather than creation. It just seems to be the way my brain works. While I cannot craft something out of the ether, I do aspire to combine and animate art already created by others.

One set of animated gifs by Kerry Callen (of classic comic book covers put in motion) illustrates the kind of craft I would like to learn how to do.

Classic Superman Animated Cover

Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #4 Animated Cover

The Amazing Spider-Man #33 Animated Cover

Batman #15 Animated Cover

Daredevil, The Man Without Fear #7 Animated Cover

Fantastic Four #51 Animated Cover

Iron Man #128 Animated Cover

Lois Lane, Superman's Girlfriend #29 Animated Cover

Batman Incorporated (v.2) #13 Animated Cover

Batman, The Dark Knight Returns Animated Cover

Justice League of America #6 Animated Cover

All discovered on tumblr, of course. I'll leave you with one of his best: Calvin & Hobbes.

Calvin and Hobbes: The Days are Just Packed Animated Cover

Making art with art: "Panels that become Creepy"

On tunblr today, I ran across these amazing gifs fashioned out of classic pieces of art. Unfortunately, my efforts to locate the creator of these little masterpieces was hindered by my lack of Italian language skills. The most common "attribution" I found was: QUADRI CHE DIVENTANO TERRIFICANTI, which Google translate tells me basically means "Panels that become Creepy." Oh so very true.

Supergirl

Helen Slater as Supergirl

I'm old enough that my live-action Supergirl was Helen Slater in the 1984 film Supergirl.











She went on to guest star as Kal-El's mom, Lara, in the WB's (later the  CW's)  Smallville.

Julian Sands (Kal-El) and Helen Slater (Lara) on Smallville

(I confess I had a little crush on Ms Slater back in the '80s and found her Lara preferable to Laura Vandervoort's supergirl in Smallville, but that's neither here nor there.)

Melissa Benoist as Supergirl

Now Andrew Kreisberg and CBS plan to re-introduce the character to TV in the Fall of 2015 with Melissa Benoist as the titular heroine.






Having become a daily tumblr-user, I have also become better acquainted with the construct called "fandom."

I am a bona fide geek-girl from youth having been raised on nightly readings of J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings and the long lines and action figures for Star Wars IV (the original release). I am most assuredly a fan.

However, I have never before experienced the equivalent of the modern fandom found online: people who claim to love all things nerd-ish but have an amazing capacity to dissect and critique those artforms before they have even had a chance to be fully born.

I ask you, who among us could survive unscathed the brutal onslaught of critique modern artists must wade through to bring their creations to life (to print, the stage, or the screen)?

There has to be a better way to show our love for someone else's creation when we engage in conversation about how and why we love it.

http://dccomicstv.tumblr.com/post/119103587760/king-fergus-reacts-to-the-supergirl-trailer-and

Mash-Ups: GoT & Disney

When I was teaching, one of my favorite projects to assign was the video mash-up. The creativity of my students was boundless: they would stitch together some of the weirdest genre combinations (clips from Mary Poppins with a horror trailer soundtrack, for example) into something completely awesome and entertaining.

On tumblr, I came across some hilarious images mashing up Game of Thrones characters with a Disney animation style. After some research (in order to be able to attribute this fine work to the actual creators of said images), I ended up at Refinery29.com and an article by Lauren Le Vine.

There I learned that illustrators Anderson Mahanski and Fernando Mendonça created the images which can be found on their website: Combo Estúdio.

John Snow & Ghost

White Walker/Other

Tyrion Lannister

Cersei Lannister

Daenerys Targaryen with Drogon

Brandon Stark and Hodor

Arya Stark and Sandor Clegane (The Hound)

Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth

Lord Varys

Oberyn Martell (The Red Viper of Dorne) and Gregor Clegane (The Mountain)

Melisandre (The Red Woman)

Social Media

Social Media is an amazing and strange thing, especially to this forty-sumthin' non-digital native.

Ironically, my nickname in high school was "Unsociable Nerd." (Luisa G. used to tease me about this almost daily, noting how I never attended parties or went to sporting events after school.) As a true-blue introvert by nature, just being sociable at all takes a whole helluvalot of energy.

Don't get me wrong. I like people. I like them a lot. My occasional misanthropic tendencies come straight from my idealized notions of what humanity is capable. It is only those of us who see "what a piece of a work is a man" who become jaded when we (humanity) fail to employ our "apprehension... like a god" to IRL problems like poverty and climate change.

So how did this introverted misanthrope get mixed up in all this social media? I now stalk artists -- professional and amateur -- on DeviantArt and post their works on my Tumblr page, which I can then embed here on my blog. And that post, subsequently, I will no doubt share on FB and Twitter to make sure it gets seen.

I'm even propagating myself in social media. SOCIAL media...

Weird.

And, it hardly takes any energy at all.

Nice.

http://haffpint.tumblr.com/post/117807217682/mr-j-by-danielgrzeszkiewicz

The above is Daniel Grzezkiewicz's latest: Mr. J. (Joker from the Batman universe). It is a disturbing take on the latest rendition of the Joker in the Batman comics by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo.

(I even get all my comics electronically

now through comiXology--

who needs to get out of the house to be social?)