Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

sarah margaret 🌲

@sarahmargs.bsky.social

This is the thread for my minicomic, Into the Bladelands! I will be posting updates of anywhere from 2-4 pages here, hopefully to be finished before the end of the year.

Sky disappears. Ari gets left behind. Five years later, the door to the Bladelands opens again.

Ari (vo): When I was sixteen, my best friend disappeared. We grew up together in the woods between our houses. Sky could have fun no matter what.
Sky: Pick up your sword and fith me like a man!
Ari: Wait for me!
Ari (vo): My favorite thing to do was just live in his world.
Bully: Whatcha drawin, faggots? The map to your honeymoon?
Sky punches him. Later, Ari tends to his wounds.
Sky: You probably think I'm really stupid.
Ari: I just think you're really brave.
They kiss.
Sky: We can't tell anyone about this, okay?
Ari: Yeah, of course.

A couple years pass. Sky and Ari are looking at the stars.
Sky: Y'know, I think about it all the time.
Ari: What we've been doing?
Sky: No, man, the Bladelands! We'd run shit over there. Be warriors or kings or whatever.
Ari: Heh, too bad it's not real.
Sky: well, it could be.
Ari: Dude.
Sky: I'm just saying! Maybe we were picking up a signal or something. Like a radio station from another state, but with dragons. It feels like that sometimes. Y'know, I turn 17 tomorrow. And I'm starting to freak out a little because, like, this is it? I thought I could be more than this.
Ari: Hey, you can be! When we're 18, we can get out of here. We'll move to the city. Together.
Sky: I guess... it still just all feels so small. At least in the Bladelands, there's magic. And prophecy, and swords, and danger. You can be an adventurer. You can at least be, like, an important person.
Ari: You're important, Sky. You're important to me.
Sky: Heh. Gayyy.
Ari: Shut up.
Ari (VO): That was the last night I ever saw him.
Ari walks away. Sky spots a mysterious portal behind a tree and reaches out to it.

Ari (Vo): The next day, he was gone.
We see a montage of Ari's lonely life. Sky's parents mourn and move away. Ari graduates. Gets a job working at a bookstore. The impromptu memorial for Sky rots.
Ari (VO): And the next. And the next. And the next. And the next. And the next. And then five years were gone.

November 22, 2025 at 6:51 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Krispy

@feathernotes.bsky.social

I'm gonna take this moment to shout out at my friends and peers who create the amazing @screentonescast.bsky.social together, a place FULL of resources to help ANYONE learn to create comics- we mean it!
If you want to learn to create, we want to help! It is 100% authentic human made work!

Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 3d

all the news is making me want to explode so instead can you all tell me about your favorite human creators and why you love them???

(you know this is serious bc I am opening up my replies to everyone lol)

December 11, 2025 at 6:27 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Casey Explosion

@caseyexplosion.bsky.social

Okay, I'll make a thread of 50 indie games which I'll add to over the week, staring with.

1. Carimara

Play as a little goblin creature summoned by a witch to investigate what's haunting her cottage, it's a creepy bite-size mystery akin to the Frog Detective games, and has gorgeous visuals.

December 10, 2025 at 5:34 AM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Ariel Slamet Ries

@arielries.bsky.social

So my first tip for this is just Read a Lot of Comics. have comics in your bookshelf (real or virtual) that you can flip through for inspiration and see how other artists are working and what/how they fit visuals into a panel. I read a lot of manga on my phone, and every time i see a page that--

el @pearlsplatoon.bsky.social · 6d

Do you have any general tips on how to improve comic layouts/paneling? I want to start making proper comics but paneling is something I really struggle with (especially when it comes to making sure my sketch compilations fit the panel size while still being effective/showing everything I want)

December 10, 2025 at 2:25 AM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Tom McH

@tommchenry.bsky.social

Posting GARY PANTER'S SKETCHBOOK TIPS to save a life -- the site that used to host these took em down years ago, and they are as useful a list about this kind of thing as you will ever find.

They are like a favorite dogeared paperback to me.

INTRODUCTION

Get a book-size (or paperback-size)d sketchbook. Write your name and date on an early page and maybe think of a name for it — and if you want, write the book’s name there at the front. Make it into your little painful pal. The pain goes away slowly page by page. Fill it up and do another one. It can be hard to get started. Don’t flunk yourself before you get the ball rolling.

You might want to draw more realistically or in perspective or so it looks slick — that’s is possible and there are tricks and procedures for drawing with more realism if you desire it. But drawing very realistically with great finesse can sometimes produce dead uninteresting drawings — relative, that is, to a drawing with heart and charm and effort but no great finesse.

You can make all kinds of rules for your art making, but for starting in a sketchbook, you need to jump in and get over the intimidation part — by messing up a few pages, ripping them out if need be. Waste all the pages you want by drawing a tic-tac-toe schematic or something, painting them black, just doodle. Every drawing will make you a little better. Every little attempt is a step in the direction of drawing becoming a part of your life.

TIPS

1. Quickly subdivide a page into a bunch of boxes by drawing a set of generally equidistant vertical lines, then a set of horizontal lines so that you have between 6 and 12 boxes or so on the page. In each box, in turn, in the simplest way

possible, name every object you can think of and draw each thing in a box, not repeating. If it is fun, keep doing this on following pages until you get tired or can’t think of more nouns. Now you see that you have some kind of ability to typify the objects in your world and that in some sense you can draw anything.

2. Choose one of the objects that came to mind that you drew and devote one page to drawing that object with your eyes closed, starting at the “nose” of the object (in outline or silhouette might be good) and following the contour you see in your mind’s eye, describing to yourself in minute detail what you know about the object. You can use your free hand to keep track of the edge of the paper and ideally your starting point so that you can work your way back to the designated nose. Don’t worry about proportion or good drawing this is all about memory and moving your hand to find the shapes you are remembering. The drawing will be a mess, but if you take your time, you will see that you know a lot more about the object than you thought.

3. Trace some drawings you like to see better what the artist’s pencil or pen is doing. Tracing helps you observe closer. Copy art you like — it can’t hurt.

4. Most people (even your favorite artists) don’t like their drawings as much as they want to. Why? Because it is easy to imagine something better. This is only ambition, which is not a bad thing — but if you can accept what you are doing, of course you will progress quicker to a more satisfying level and also accidentally make perfectly charming drawings even if they embarrass you.

4. Most people (even your favorite artists) don’t like their drawings as much as they want to. Why? Because it is easy to imagine something better. This is only ambition, which is not a bad thing — but if you can accept what you are doing, of course you will progress quicker to a more satisfying level and also accidentally make perfectly charming drawings even if they embarrass you.

5. Draw a bunch more boxes and walk down a sidewalk or two documenting where the cracks and gum and splotches and leaves and mowed grass bits are on the square. Do a bunch of those. That is how nature arranges and composes stuff. Remember these ideas — they are in your sketchbook.

6. Sit somewhere and draw fast little drawings of people who are far away enough that you can only see the big simple shapes of their coats and bags and arms and hats and feet. Draw a lot of them. People are alike yet not — reduce them to simple and achievable shapes.

7. To get better with figure drawing, get someone to pose — or use photos — and do slow drawing of hands, feet, elbows, knees, and ankles. Drawing all the bones in a skeleton is also good, because it will help you see how the bones in the arms and legs cross each other and affect the arms’ and legs’ exterior shapes. When you draw a head from the side make sure you indicate enough room behind the ears for the brain case.

8. Do line drawings looking for the big shapes, and tonal drawing observing the light situation of your subject — that is, where the light is coming from and where it makes shapes in shade on the form, and where light reflects back onto the dark areas sometimes.

9. To draw the scene in front of you, choose the middle thing in your drawing and put it in the middle of your page — then add on to the drawing from the center of the page out.

10. Don’t worry about a style. It will creep up on you and eventually you will have to undo it in order to go further. Be like a river and accept everything.

March 19, 2025 at 4:29 AM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Panel Party (Working on Comix Cleric!)

@panelparty.net

For months, we've been working on a better way for creators to host their comics online, but WE NEED YOUR HELP TO FINISH!

Check out our Kickstarter for full details and how you can help us create a better comic-hosting ecosystem that's fair and accessible!

🔗 bit.ly/4azC95a

A Better Way to Host Webcomics

YouTube video by Panel Party

www.youtube.com

December 9, 2025 at 1:13 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

PSX Bunlith 🪄 BLM ACAB 🇵🇸

@b0tster.yeag.gay

🪄🖤 beatrix and void 🖤🪄

support the web show these characters star in here! less than 24 hours left!! www.kickstarter.com/projects/bun...

beatrix (goth trans girl wearing black cargo pants, a tight black long sleeve shirt and a witch hat) walking from the side view with void the black cat walking in front of her

December 7, 2025 at 8:44 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Iron Spike

@ironspike.bsky.social

This is your occasional reminder that, if you like Neil Gaiman's stuff, but can't bring yourself to like it anymore for justifiable reasons, Tanith Lee is the author he is credibly accused of extensively cribbing from, and her work is on Audible, and AMAZING.

December 5, 2025 at 9:49 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Shannon Hale

@shannonhale.bsky.social

I love love love that they hired a painter to do these portraits and then acknowledged her by name. Artists of all kinds supporting each other is so beautiful.

Rian Johnson @rianjohnson.bsky.social · 8d

Our gorgeous #WakeUpDeadMan end credit portraits, painted from life by Isabella Watling. We’re still in theaters, see my pinned post for a theater finder!

December 7, 2025 at 3:31 AM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Emmett Watkins Jr

@ejsponge61.com

btw if you have no idea what I'm talking about check out my lists from previous years and last year:

December 4, 2025 at 11:54 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Steve Lieber

@stevelieberart.bsky.social

I miss the days when the comic strips were full of practical advice like on basic topics like "how to be a good hostess"

2 panels drawn by Frank Frazetta. A woman in the tightest dress imaginable is dropping 2 pills labeled "poison" into a pitcher of water, then carrying the pitcher out to her guests.

December 3, 2025 at 10:22 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Studio Grail × Grave Regrets

@studiograil.com

I'm realizing now it probably wasn't the smartest move to start our announcement trailer with a black screen since videos don't autoplay on the bsky browser. #indiegame

So to those who are too lazy to click, here's the summary:

Our psychological horror visual novel's key art, showing a freaky biblical angel with red eyes embracing a girl holding lilies. The text over it reads Grave Regrets, wishlist now.

December 3, 2025 at 10:30 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Snail

@snailztrails.bsky.social

Crazy to me that these WEREN'T done digitally- everything is so clean and sharp that I can imagine the layers and blending modes they would have used, but no! This is really cool

Animation Obsessive @ani-obsessive.bsky.social · 11d

Scott Wills paints a background for the first run of Samurai Jack (2001–2004), created by Genndy Tartakovsky, Cartoon Network Studios

December 3, 2025 at 1:32 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

BadAlias

@badalias.neocities.org

THERMOCLINE will be releasing soon.... (for free)

A turn-based survival horror JRPG where you must survive the cold for long enough to escape. That is, if you aren't caught first. #horror #rpgmaker
store.steampowered.com/app/4029770/...

THERMOCLINE on Steam

A BLIZZARD RAGES. Lone survivor, you are STRANDED upon a FRIGID CORPSE-PLANET. THEY seek your warmth, sucking Soul from the shadows. AND TONIGHT, THE WIND IS YOUR CLOSEST SEMBLANCE OF A FRIEND.

store.steampowered.com

November 29, 2025 at 5:10 AM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

🍃 e d e n

@edentimm.bsky.social

Check out these stellar indie shorts in the thread!! Everyone did such an amazing job. Give yourselves a pat ⭐ n thebback, making something at all is a miracle, and to make something this cool? Incredible.

CartoonRecruit.com @cartoonrecruit.com · 13d

Congratulations to the winners of Cartoon Recruit's first portfolio jam!

Community Choice - A Night on the Other Side by BAACollective & Friends

Winner of the Jam - Trumpet Skull by Team Lonely Bones

Honorable Mention - Doot Doot by The Lone Drafter

December 1, 2025 at 1:34 AM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Pookleblinky

@pookleblinky.bsky.social

"Strong floor, no ceiling" is very literally the basis of like every Gilded Age political cartoon

Gilded Age political cartoon titled "the protectors of our industries"

A mass of workers strain under the weight of supporting a boat containing rich top-hatted monocle wearing capitalists sitting atop huge sacks of cash

November 30, 2025 at 9:41 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

✨ rampaige halsey ✨

@rampaigehalsey.bsky.social

This video essay is the perfect cross-section of why so much sucks now.

Also it’s well-researched and charming af. As someone who also has a long history of sewing and garment construction, Joann was simultaneously the best and the worst. This is a brutally honest eulogy.

youtu.be/4VJxJesgF8Y?...

how one company broke sewing for EVERYONE

YouTube video by Lizard Leigh

youtu.be

November 30, 2025 at 7:22 AM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Gail Simone

@gailsimone.bsky.social

IF YOU ARE TRYING TO MAKE A COMIC...

Please talk about it on this thread! I would love to hear what stage you are at, what is working well, and what has proven more difficult than you thought.

Share a bit of art, if you can!

Sing your own praises, if you like!

November 30, 2025 at 4:17 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

☀️ Alex Chiu ☀️

@alexmchiu.bsky.social

#kpopdemonhunters freefall seq I boarded, temp tracked to red by hyuna. I love how the final version came out 🥰

June 22, 2025 at 5:36 AM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Kyle Tran Myhre

@guante.info

Lots of people sharing this clip because it's funny and cathartic but I also genuinely believe it's important.

We have to win the narrative battle between "I live in a corrupt society and that's just how it is" and "I live in a corrupt society and we are going to defeat and humiliate these ghouls."

Miami DSA @miamidsa.org · 18d

Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷

November 26, 2025 at 4:07 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Bantership Potemkin

@bonesdrawstuff.bsky.social

The armour designs in Legend of the Galactic Heroes is top tier.

November 22, 2025 at 2:00 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Catsuka

@catsuka.bsky.social

Happy 10th anniversary to Argentinian animation studio Rudo.
www.instagram.com/rudo.co

November 25, 2025 at 9:37 PM

Reposted by Harry Shapiro

Johanna Taylor 👻 ✍️ 📚

@johannamation.bsky.social

Everyone wanting to write AND draw their own graphic novel needs to look at this, and plan your finances/side-gigs accordingly.

The advance money reeeeally doesn't go as far as you think it does.