Bubblegum Punk

Art blog of Ari Coester. He/him. Mid 20s. Zines. Comics. Illustrations. My favorite things to draw are animals and monsters.

[acoester-comics]

The Catchild

In this middle grade and up fable, follow 11-year old demigod Adara on her quest to find the godly mother she's never known and unravel wher

New two pages are up! Adara is gonna be in troubleeee.

[acoester-comics]

A zine inspired by both my spiritual and scientific appreciation for the coelacanth. What a gift it is to spend my life on the planet with these creatures and all the other people that love them.

[acoester-comics]

The Catchild

In this middle grade and up fable, follow 11-year old demigod Adara on her quest to find the godly mother she's never known and unravel wher

Next two pages of The Catchild, my middle grade and up webcomic is up!

[acoester-comics]

My first webcomic The Catchild is live on webcomic studio here!

In a world divided between gods and humans, nature and civilization, 11-year-old demigod Adara is unsure of where she belongs. Leaving behind her loving father and the human town she's lived all her life, she sets off on a journey to meet her goddess mother and learn her mother's story. What she discovers will change her perceptions of herself, her family, and her world and inspire her to transform all of it.

If you like my other ecology themed art and fiction and a story that challenges the false dichotomy that nature is good and humans are evil , you'll enjoy this! For ages 9 and up. Updates with 2 new pages every Monday.

[acoester-comics]

A follow up to the Michigan Turtles Zine with the animals that inspired me to become an ecologist: Salamanders! The cutest little murder machines on the planet! Invertebrates beware!

[acoester-comics]

[acoester-comics]

See? I do in fact have range. I can draw robots and then slightly different robots. Looks like its having a nice day outside! Hopefully that'll be me soon, once the weather improves.

[acoester-comics]

Introducing Rocket (it/its for now until I work out the world's pronoun system fully). Same world as my other robot OC Damselfly, but about 60 years before Damselfly's time. Its a gladiator and oh boy sure hope nothing horrible happens to them in that career path....

[acoester-comics]

Behold! The Salamimander! They can be found hanging out around backyard bbqs, deli garbage cans, and sausage festivals. Wherever there's a sausage or salami to steal or mustard to slurp, you'll find this cheeky, adorable little thief.

[acoester-comics]

A zine about the world's most metal animal (scientifically and literally). I love this little guys (and they are sooooo little 32 to 45.5 mm little).

[hydrothermalvententhusiast]

THESE LITTLE GUYS ARE SO COOL!!!

They are different colours depending on what vent they live at!

Xi Chen et al made this nice chart for their paper Dispersal and isolation of the scaly-foot snail across abyssal insular habitats and through time of what different populations across the eight vents they have been observed living near look like

This one is from the Solitaire feild! It doesnt live near black smokers so it doesnt have the same iron shell. The vents there run clear there

This one does have a black iron shell! It's from the Kairei vent fields. Scaly footed gastropods from this feild only live near one chimney and its a black smoker

And this one and their friends are from the Longqi vent feild

They are so beautiful and so varied!

They have a wonderful symbiotic relationship with chemosynthetic bacteria which turn chemicals from the hydrothermal vents into glucose and waste products! No eating needed for them!! They have a relatively large esophagus where they house their friends the bacteria

[acoester-comics]

I just wanted to reblog this comic again for all of the excellent information provided by @hydrothermalvententhusiast ! Thank you soooooo much for including some of my favorite facts I didn’t have room for in the zine (they do not eat! They get help from bacteria friends and the different shell colors depending on vents) and new facts I didn’t know! It’s sooooo cool to see their dispersal patterns and to know there are 8 not 3 vents!!! I’ll need to redo that page of the zine. Might also need to make some variant covers of different vent snails for fun.

Also, thanks to @hydrothermalvententhusiast for finding an error in my zine on page 2. Previously, the page stated that the scaly gastropods were only on 3 vents, but they have actually been found on 8!! Hooray more room for snails and more color variations! Please reblog this updated version of the zine.

[acoester-comics]

A zine about the world's most metal animal (scientifically and literally). I love this little guys (and they are sooooo little 32 to 45.5 mm little).

[acoester-comics]

Limited color palettes my beloved. I've got to do more with them.

[acoester-comics]

More damselfly, this time with fighting poses! I'm basing its fighting style off of a mix of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu techniques. Very happy to be drawing fighting poses again.

[acoester-comics]

A sad, lonely creature in a happy place.

[acoester-comics]

Another drawing of the robot oc, Damselfly. Really enjoying the new rendering style.

[acoester-comics]

Proof that I have not (yet) successfully run away to the carboniferous. My latest zine about local paleontology. Hope you enjoy (the muskox implores you with his big soft eyes)!

I've got a big project (webcomic! ecology! fantasy! found family! 11 year old girls being right and badass!) for the new year. So stay tuned : )

[acoester-comics]

Hi Everyone! I'm very excited to be part of an anthology called "Columbus Cartoon Coalition's Hidden Histories" this year! The anthology contains a bunch of interesting stories about the history of Columbus and Ohio from a many super talented artists. Currently, the campaign is live on crowdfunder and all proceeds go to raising artists' page rates. If you've ever wanted to learn more about Ohio or ever wanted to support my art this is a great way to do it!

Here's a little sneak peak of my comic for the anthology to peak your interest.