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Magpie & Whale

@magpieandwhale / magpieandwhale.tumblr.com

The natural magpie impulse is, of course, to grab shiny things and hoard them in one place. Hi, I'm Esther, and I write things. Sometimes there are pictures too.

oh my gosh, got my password back, hi???

I’m not... really here, but if I were, I could tell you that I’ve been super into The Untamed since last summer and my dearest best beloved is Xue Yang.

I just love him a lot.

Hope you’re all well!

Happy Hanukkah, everyone, from these two jerks! I’m posting this a little early this year. Line art by the amazing Ro Stein & Ted Brandt, and colour art by @deecunniffe

I want to point out what a technical achievement this story is on the art side. There’s a real joy to creating a whole story in eight panels, but this? This is some magic. We introduce four new characters. In panel 5, SIX PEOPLE are talking. SIX. In the world of comics, that’s almost un-doable. 

Yet Ro and Ted arranged everything so the conversations flow and are sensibly grouped, all the “acting” is fantastic, and then Dee laid on top these beautiful, almost fairytale colours – look at the subtle work, the blush in Henry’s cheeks, Frank’s five o-clock shadow, the shine of the wine bottle’s glass surface, the light texturing in the backgrounds… and of course the snow! This is some first-class illustration work on an incredibly hard script. (I fear Ro and Ted always get me at my worst – my very formalist script for them in the 24 Panels anthology was no cakewalk either. (The problem is, they’re just so damn good at it… check out their work on the Image comic Crowded!)

As always, if you like what we do in Hells Kitchen Movie Club, consider donating a little to a veteran’s charity

(I also have a thriller novel I’m crowdfunding, please check it out, we are more than halfway there. The book is all written…)

Previously in Hell: cover image // 01 // 02 // 03 // Xmas // 04 // 05 // 06 // 07 // Hanukkah // That time the Punisher’s creator gave us a thumbs-up // twitter // insta

I know I’m not here and not even Tumblr is going to be here for very long, but oh my heart, this is just about everything I’ve ever wanted.

Swinging back by to announce that I have a problem, and that problem is The Flash. Nobody tell me about the bad shit yet, I just want to keep rolling around in this campy Art Deco soap opera with superpowers.

Hey friends! Just gonna sign out of Tumblr for a little while. It feels right. I will almost certainly be back far too soon, but if you want to reach me before then —

IG: magpieandwhale Twitter: @magpiewhale email: fangirlitis[at]gmail

<33333 -Esther