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(RIP Curiouscat.) Anonymously send questions, prompts, comments, complaints, recommendations, cries for help, poetry, etc.

I just thought you'd enjoy this
Anonymous | May 16, 2023

HAHA YES I was SO disappointed by the lack of snout! They could have gone nuts! Bug legs! Disturbing silhouettes! Objective fuckability! I wanted to see wasteland lightning rod: the dragon!

I love the sawshark idea in this thread. And the kisses.

Could Pilitchik be a sparkledog werewolf tree?
Anonymous | April 4, 2023

Great question! No, Fiend can only catch werewolfism because of their human half. Pil is the opposite of anything that the virus would even recognize. I could come up with some freaky plant viruses that its parent's version of reality has, though.

That being said: you know I have to figure out what a werewolf tree would even look like.

Do you enjoy Felix Colgrave's animations? They feel very your vibe to me
Anonymous | February 7, 2023

I like his designs a lot! Googly eyes surrounded by wrinkles, creative approaches to bodies and mechanics, adorable creatures with silly maws, etc.

But confession: I don't think I've ever finished one of his animations. I hate sitting in front of a screen with my hands folded in my lap, so uhhh. Animation is not a genre I can explore the way it was intended.

opossum feet, HOW???
Anonymous | February 7, 2023

I know!!! How did they manage to predict the fingerless gloves trend before the costume designers at Disney Channel?

What caused your sudden and lamentable(?) transformation into a white weasel?
Anonymous | January 2, 2023

It all started in 2016 when people were designing "Zootopiasonas", which even at the time we all acknowledged was an extrasyllabic way of saying we wanted a fursona.

I wondered "who the hell would I even WANT to be in a Disney movie universe?" and thought of the animated movements of the petty criminal weasel played by Alan Tudyk. But I've never been a fan of the weird exclamation point noses weasels get in cartoons, so I designed myself a cute little ermine who would be most at home in uhhh [googles] Tundratown.

And she just kinda stuck! Turns out I really vibe with weasel energy, considering we're both small, dancey, always up for a tussle, and very easy to find cheap pelts of on Etsy. I don't think it's lamentable at all! It's never been easier to draw myself.

If fiend gets a cold and gets stuffed up, can he breathe through his southmouth?
Anonymous | November 30, 2022

I love when people throw these amazing possibilities at me. But no! Excuse my slapdash anatomy knowledge:

Like Fiend themself, the southmouth is self-centered as hell. It's not connected to any respiratory, vocal, or digestive system. It's just a pocket that will bite you. FOR FUN.

you said tumblr is warm but is it warm for porn? or gore?
Anonymous | November 26, 2022

I'm gonna be real, dude: as someone with very specific tastes in both of those things, I'm always taken aback by this sentiment because Twitter hasn't offered me anything exciting in years. The lack of a tag system kills me. I also get the sense that a lot of porn Twitter is trying to win over a commercial audience, which is also a huge sad turn-off. I look at the feed on my 18+ account and don't remember why I followed half those people, haha.

If you're seeing interesting stuff I'm not, by all means send it along! Just, please... no more muscle dudes with no face..... no more wolves in basketball shorts........ I NEED A GUY WITH A BIG, WET, UGLY.... PERSONALITY

Thoughts on the new FR eel dragons?
Anonymous | November 22, 2022

SOOOOOOOOOO GLAD TO HAVE A LEGLESS DRAGON (even if they included fins-- still holding out for an Earth worm). They have very cute faces, I love their li'l underbites and they have a few interesting terts that really transform their look without getting too busy! I think I'll especially get a lot of mileage out of Pufferfish when I play actively again. And the Octopus genes... whoever colored those is a genius.

Verdict: Cute, important, beautiful. Not sexy enough to make me feed my dragons, though.

I'm real happy you had a good time in Portland! There's a lot I miss about living there. Do Seattle next! We're like Portland but mean and cold! :3 jk jk, I mean not jk fuck Seattle at large, BUT we got cool ~districts~. Capitol Hill is our very own ex-Autonomous Zone and gay district, home to bookstores with cats, art stores, kink venues, swingdancing, and great coffee/food; Georgetown is home of Fantagraphics and a lot of indie art studios; Fremont has its very own bridge troll and fun naked art people; International District has great food and shopping and theaters; and it's fun to do Pike Place at least once, get a fish thrown at you for posterity, etc. The puget sound area is really spooky and beautiful, all the freezing cold PNW coastal forest beaches where everything is grayscale and covered in alien driftwood contortions and Werner Herzog will narrate your experience there for free! Gimme a holler if you're ever in this woods of the neck!
~Wes | November 18, 2022

You know exactly what I want... comics and getting fish thrown at me. Saving these tips for later, also HELL YE LET'S WEAR GALOSHES TOGETHER BRO

Your Neocities site is REALLY good. Thank you for making it and showing us how it's done!
Anonymous | October 12, 2022

Thanks so much, dude! Pay me back by making one of your own.

Your tumblr blog has been a light of happiness in some of the crappiest years of my life so far. It has reminded me of my passions, in times when it felt like the rest of the world was going the opposite way. I don't know what to thank you for, specifically, but I think that I should thank you. You indirectly inspired me to start being my own self, again. Thank you.
Anonymous | September 24, 2022

Bud... This was a really touching thing to get to read. Inspiration to be yourself and make unique, idiosyncratic shit is something I value so deeply, and it's a value I desperately want to impart to other people. Self-expression has brought me a lot of good things, and made me very happy (and very frustrated with anyone who lets others swallow them, but y'know) and I hope it makes you happy, too. THANK YOU.

I know you've coded out an askbox, do you have an idea of how to code in a home made comment box?
Anonymous | September 22, 2022

I looked into it around the same time I made this guy! An ask form is simple enough because it only needs to send the message to an inbox somewhere. Adding the ability for the form to then display the message instantly in your front-facing code is beyond what I’m willing to teach myself right now. I don’t think there are any beginner-friendly services that offer a PHP shortcut to do that. You'd need to figure out your own PHP hosting, inside and out. Eww!

Thankfully, PHP is very commonly-understood among pro coders. There are some sadgrl tutorials that can help! I recommend reading them even if you don’t understand them yet, because it’ll show you what gaps you need to fill in your knowledge.

Disqus and HTML Comment Box aren’t the cutest alternatives, but they’ll save you a lot of headache for now.

Would you rather fight ten Fiend-sized Als, or one Al-sized Fiend?
Anonymous | August 20, 2022

WHAT DO YOU THINK.

Some goats look like meth-addicts
Anonymous | August 19, 2022

That's probably why they're so good at mowing lawns!

Which is better - 80ies aesthetic or the FUTURE as designed by the 70ies aesthetic?
Anonymous | August 9, 2022

Wow, this really made me think about my beef with 70s futurism.

Futurism in general has this weird obsession with making things into spheres. I don't think most things should be spheres, especially not things you don't want to roll. If it's bad for a goldfish, it's bad for us. Animals need corners. We need landmarks for the boundaries of our space, as well as places for all your flat-backed furniture, which is a category that includes BASICALLY ALL FURNITURE.

And that's another thing, the lack of comfort engineering. Futurist bedrooms look like dining halls that they expect people to pee in. AND they look like they echo like crazy. If I'm going to rent an apartment in space, I don't want to step out of my autopsy slab-shaped LED bed onto tile that's been chilled to -40F by our 500 gajillion lightyear distance from the nearest star. I want carpet.

And have you ever noticed that every sky in a futurist painting is either deep sea blue or neon pink? Is that supposed to be anything but depressing? Futurism loves rendering extremely shiny objects in garish inhospitable primary colors, and it loves to put trees in domes. I know in my heart that all of this would make me wish I was dead.

SO PERSONALLY, I'd much rather look at a gray Soviet-style block with an array of buttons that look like they make loud clicky noises. And teal scrunchies. Every piece of 80s technology I've encountered works satisfyingly and transparently. Even the scrunchies. Ugly as they can be, they all represent some kind of success in engineering, and thus take on some kind of inner beauty. And the leftover 70s wood paneling decals kinda helped.

:D i hope you have a dance dance dance !
Anonymous | July 6, 2022

does fiend sweat?
Anonymous | June 17, 2022

Hell yeah they do! Their physiology is based on a human's, after all. It comes out clear for what I feel are obvious visual consideration reasons.

(Excellent background texture by Daniel Olah via Unsplash.)

Out of all of your characters you have, which is the *least* likely to survive being handcuffed to fiend for a day?
Anonymous | June 17, 2022

Physically or financially? Because Glenn.

This feels like a question you must have gotten many times over the years, but do you have any specific advice for pushing dynamic poses? Besides practice of course!
Anonymous | May 23, 2022

I have, and I have so many thoughts.

- Sketch by moving your elbow more than your wrist. Draw fast and low-detail. Think in silhouettes. Few, elegant lines = eye moves over it fast. Save the most detail for important stuff like hands and faces.

- Get up. Stretch. Strike poses. Dance. Try it without a mirror and think about how it FEELS to move, how long you feel. Get comfortable moving your limbs as far away from your body as possible. Use that when making your character's limbs fill the page.

- Do charades with yourself. Think about how you'd communicate something without speaking. How big would your gestures need to be if you were doing it from a stage?

- Think about weight. Feet in big boots stay planted on the ground while a fist flies. Wings fill with air and then push it back down. Heavy things hang lower than light things that sway in the breeze.

- Draw a "before" and "after" of an action-- like, winding up for a punch and then letting it loose.

- Look at your older drawings and re-sketch them more dynamically. The nice thing about pushing is that you can always just add more!

- Picking a weird camera perspective always helps.

- Honestly, a lot of the illusion of movement comes down to distance. When in doubt, make things longer, further away, or claustrophobically closer. (And when things squish together, that extra mass tends to go somewhere. Maybe gets taller.)

- Pushing poses ties into character acting, so having a very active/athletic/theatrical character is VERY helpful. Some characters simply don't want to push. And they're assholes.

what is a twine game?
Anonymous | May 14, 2022

Twine is a free program for making choose-your-own adventure text games. I also like to use it to arrange story beats, like digital notecards.

Sometimes the term "game" can be a little loose, but if you know some scripting code you can make it game-ier. Porpentine makes some pretty wild ones.

you seem really chill and cool, your site is awesome and inspired me to make a new personal site since my old one got torn up!
Anonymous | May 14, 2022

YEEESSS LOVE TO HEAR IT, and thank you so much! Maybe show me sometime!

Could you draw Fiend eating a lunchable looking straight up peeved?

or not. i'm not your mom.
Anonymous | May 11, 2022

Sure. But I'm not doing the cross-section view unless you pay me, pervert.

so would you say they're chewy, or more crunchy?
Anonymous | May 10, 2022

Would you say you're chewy, or more crunchy?

(They're crunchy.)

If you could invent a dragon breed for flight rising, how would it act/look/drag
Anonymous | May 9, 2022

Truthfully, if I could have my wish I'd either ask them for a hydra or a straight-up worm dragon. But I don't feel like drawing either of those, so thanks for the design exercise!

Click to embiggen:

If you’ve been asked this before you can ignore it, but whats your comic writing process like???? I got multiple stories in working on but I wither cant seem to start, or I make good headway, come back later, & the writing is dog ass
Anonymous | May 5, 2022

Bro you have THINGS TO COME BACK TO?? That's like half the battle! Great work on the dog ass!

My process has to accommodate for my attention span, so it's hella chaotic. I just use whatever method is most stimulating at the moment. Mainly I sketch random dialogue and cool scenes in my sketchbook. Then I go through it and put color-coded flags on each page depending on what story/chapter it corresponds to. Later I'll transcribe the ideas in order into a script, slowly filling in the holes.

My first drafts are always bad. I focus on the outline and plot points, which for some reason makes me write extra gloomy and dramatic. They're cringey, awful, embarrassing, out-of-character, and I'll take them to my grave. And it's great to have that jumping-off point to improve upon! It's not until the second draft that anything starts to feel right.

If you're just trying to get something done and out in the world, here's what works for me:

1. DON'T TALK ABOUT THE PROJECT. Talking about characters is fine, "I'm gonna make a comic!" is not. Talking about it feels as good as doing it, so you lose motivation. And if you take too long, people will learn not to expect anything from you. DEPRIVE YOURSELF UNTIL YOU CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. YOU HAVE TO MAKE THE THING OR DIE.

2. Keep goals small and immediate and reachable. Whenever you can, just make Something. I'm talking "write as much as you can by the end of the summer" or "draw one thing today". Always think in terms of "what would Future Me be glad I did for them?"

3. Try to combine your story with whatever else you're excited about. False Edge was originally written as a Twine game because I wanted to feel out the program. When the idea grew too big for Twine, I was still energized by all the progress I'd made, so I took a week to draw some stream-of-consciousness comic pages-- which I later redrew to become the final intro. After a certain point of procrastination, planning is your sworn enemy. Find reasons to get your hands dirty, even if you won't keep what you made!

4. Pick a "due date" to unveil your work. I picked my birthday. I can't put off my fucking birthday!

how many little easy-peel oranges could you eat before you started crying
Anonymous | May 5, 2022

5-8, depending on how fun "being forced to eat oranges" is framed to me. Unless I hit one of those ones that's mostly fiber, then it's < 1.

Do you think surgeons should let you keep removed body parts more often?
Anonymous | May 1, 2022

Man, I think they should MAKE you keep them. Why are you expecting them to throw away your trash?

Whats your favourite colour palette
Anonymous | May 1, 2022

GOLLY, GUESS...

Honorable mention:

How did you make an ask page?
Anonymous | April 5, 2022

I'm so glad you asked!

Okay, so I'm assuming you know some coding basics. Neocities allows me to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This page is made of all of those.

If you want to make a form page, W3Schools has great form examples: HTML, CSS. I also spliced together some of their JavaScript walkthroughs to make the tabbed categories. All of this is to make something that looks pretty.

However, in order to actually let people send your site information (like via a form), you also need PHP. If you don't know what that is, nbd, you don't need to. Basically it's a script for processing the incoming info. Neocities will not help you host PHP. There are good reasons for this-- it can be a security risk if you don't know what you're doing, and a lack of PHP keeps Neocities from being attractive to companies.

So what I needed was a third party PHP host, and right now that's Formkeep. I think I just had to hook it up so that the form's action= my Formkeep's address. I seem to do just fine with the free version.

If you don't feel like doing all that yourself: just steal my code, I don't care. Hit me up if you need help!

If you made DFS into a .... moving picture item, would you prefer it to be a film or series? And animated, stop-motion or live action?
Anonymous | April 4, 2022

Oh, I think DFS is live-action all the way. There's nothing about this story that would work better in animation. SURE, none of the characters look like real human actors... except Xav, who looks like all of them... but it's a fairly grounded story that doesn't require a lot of fantasy or flexibility of body or mind.

DFS is inspired almost entirely by live-action horror/thrillers/dramas, with the notable exception of comics like Mesmo Delivery. My focus is on interpersonal relationships, with a splash of very adult violence and surrounded by boring but steadfast blue-collar machinery. People just don't animate the kind of story I'm going for!

Another reason I feel that way is because I feel like DFS takes place in a lot of really beautiful natural environments-- sun-bleached desert roads, dusty motels, lush Michigan forests. This story is a two-headed Pinterest board. The settings in this story are really important to me, and I struggle a lot with drawing what I find beautiful about them.

Also, every writer thinks their first project should be a series. I think I could fit it all into a miniseries, at least. 10 eps, maybe?

Pirates, ninjas or cowboys?
Anonymous | April 3, 2022

Hmm. This calls for some good old-fashioned HTML.

COWBOYS PIRATES NINJAS
Violence 🔫 ⚔️ 🗡️
Cool Shoes 👢 👢 🩴
Sweet Rides 🐎
Neat Pets 🐮 🦜
Good Food 🌶️ 🍣
Unlikely to Drown
Proud Mothers
Winner: COWBOYS

Hello, I used to follow you on LJ & then tumblr waaaay back (like 10 years ago or more), but I kind of fell off social media for a few years. Today I ended up looking up your old tumblr on a whim, and I'm so glad I did! I always looked up to you as an artist as a writer, and it's so cool to see how your art skills have grown even more since I last saw your work, plus I still recognize most of your characters :) I keep seeing Neocities recommended for personal websites, but yours is the first I've actually taken a look at, and a) it looks very cool, b) it makes me want to make my own, and c) your mention of MabsLand.com unlocked ancient memories of my time in middle school browsing that very site on dial-up internet, which I remember being a huge inspiration for me re: wanting to make comics myself. Anyway, all this to say: nice to see you're still out here creating amazing & unique art! 👋
Marin | April 2, 2022

MARIN!! I remember you, I'm so glad you're still kicking! I still think of you as one of my Tumblr grandparents, haha. I hope unplugged life has been treating you amazingly. I'm especially glad you didn't die. Y'know, when people disappear off social media it's a 50/50 chance.

Thank you soooo much for the kind words, I don't think I know how to stop writing and drawing my weird little dudes. And please consider making a Neocities someday! Static coding can be zen once you get the hang of it... and if you ever get stuck or need tips or just someone to look at a page you're proud of, I'm very enthusiastic about that kinda thing.

i found your comic tonight and read the whole thing and i just gotta say ! this was fucking amazing,fiend is just nuts and i love hera..SOOOO MUCH shes my little meow meow !!!!!!!!!
Anonymous | Feb. 27, 2022

THANK YOU FOR READING! I can't wait until I'm done focusing on other stories/learning German/generally refusing to Give The People What They Want. Shit in False Edge is gonna get sooooo fucked up.

Whats the most important thing to understand about Fiend's character?
Anonymous | Feb. 11, 2022

Probably that Fiend isn't complicated! There's no secret pain or heart of gold hiding in there. Fiend does what Fiend wants for Fiend, and they're never trying to impress or seduce you. If you don't like Fiend, Fiend just chalks it up to your lack of taste. TSK, typical...

Have you seen Mother Mother's new Hayloft vids?
Anonymous | Feb. 10, 2022

Oh my god. It's so smart of them to capitalize on how O My Heart is still one of Tumblr's favorite albums. Looks like there's a TikTok resurgence? Good for them. Cool filming style, too.

This is, like... their "Gay Bar Part 2".

You seem like the person who doesnt read homestuck, but gets mistaken for someone who does a lot
Anonymous | Feb. 10, 2022

I've had Glenn compared to Karkat and that's it! Homestuck looks heavy on patterns/systems and VERY light on... arms... and good color palettes... it's a very left-brained vibe. Plus the huge ensemble cast. Do I LOOK like I know how to write more than 3 characters at once??

Do you think you could take Goku in a fight
Anonymous | Feb. 1, 2022

Well, let's look at his track record. Goku's gotten his ass kicked like twenty times. Meanwhile, despite the things I say to people, nobody has ever kicked my ass. I'm the safer bet.

Since you're looking for German music at the moment, you miiight wanna check out SDP if you haven't already. Their music can get pretty cheesy, but it might be something to go off of? They don't mumble as much as some other musicians.
Anonymous | Dec. 28, 2021

Oooh, thank you! You've got them exactly right-- the lyrics are pretty lovesick and typical, but they're lovesick and typical in German which is exactly great for someone at a learning stage where they tell you to watch cartoons for 4-year-olds.

Do you think stop-motion/claymation animation is inhertantly better suited to horror?
Anonymous | Dec. 23, 2021

YES?? YES. Claymation is DISGUSTING and creeps me out under the best and most Rankin-Bass of circumstances. Something-something "that shouldn't be moving, let alone like that".

And I love that. That's what makes Lee Hardcastle so fun and exhausting to watch. If I did horror I would absolutely consider claymation, because it's the easiest way to get a rise out of me, personally. The last thing I want to think about is a dented little man who doesn't have blood and is probably angry about it. Maybe it's because I feel guilty about bringing him into the world. (This may be how God feels. He knows we're right to be mad.)

does fiend smoke/drink? if so, what
Anonymous | Dec. 22, 2021

Fiend will get absolutely SILLAY on red wine if you let them. Not a big smoker, but given their hedonistic inclinations they'll probably puff down a cigar if a sufficiently luxurious one is available.
Anyway. Have yourself A SILLAY CHRISTMAS

do you appreciate 'nog?
Anonymous | Dec. 20, 2021

I am frightened by the 'nog. Man is the only animal that makes 'nog for fun.

online shopping is a myth and a scam. it does not exist. state the true selector of the little man's clothes.
Anonymous | Dec. 20, 2021

Maybe, but you can't beat the bureaucratic convenience of picking up your DollsKill pot leaf bikini from the DMV along with your driver's license

Little man in suit
Who picked out his clothes for him?
Much too small to shop...

Possessed-Opossum | Dec. 20, 2021

It's called online shopping, you luddite.

If you were to paint your nails RIGHT NOW what color would you choose
Cyamallo | Dec. 20, 2021

GREEN, what do you expect from me... Though I also have a salmony-orange I like to pull out when I'm feeling frisky.

[CURIOUSCAT ARCHIVE]