Magpie & Whale

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.

[magpieandwhale]

I'm not anywhere at the moment, I just miss h0rnyposting with head empty, only communal delight.

[magpieandwhale]

I just wanted to let you know that your post from forever ago (2014) about cover letters helped me get a career. The guy hiring me said it was the best cover letter he'd ever seen.

!! This is absolutely amazing to hear, and I'm so glad it's helped you. Thank you for letting me know!

I'm amazed at the long life of this post, and thrilled it's been so useful: https://magpieandwhale.tumblr.com/post/80163186536/dear-internet

[excineribusbooks]

we waste the same day like nobody dies by @magpieandwhale, illustrated by @cloudy-recesses

I've lovingly referred to this project as "We Waste the Same Day Like Nobody Dies: The Illustrated Edition" ever since its inception [mumblemumble] months ago (since, if you haven't seen it yet, @teleportbooks also made a beautiful binding of the same series!). magpieandwhale is another friend I've known for TWENTY FREAKIN YEARS somehow; I knew I was going to make her a copy of this as soon as she finished it, and I had the great joy of giving it to her in person last week while in her city for a family wedding ❤️

This was another design that got slammed sideways at the last minute by finding the perfect cover paper. Last month, Renegade Publishing had its first-ever retreat, which included plenty of paper for swap and sale -- and what should I find on the swap table but that incredible gold-and-black Art Deco-ish stuff? It fit so well with the titling I'd already done that I immediately switched it up from a full cloth binding to a quarter-binding, with an inset carved out of the board for the title to sit in. For contrast (and a little intentional clashing), I went with silver-and-black on the endpapers, to play with the idea of Xue Yang and Wang Haoxuan as two not-quite-separate entities with much more in common than either wanted to believe.

The spheres in the cover design reference a scene partway through the third story, "shatter what you will not carry":

Xiao Zhan twirls his pen and digs up a fresh piece of scratch paper. “Okay. Think of a ball of some sort.” “Make it a football,” Yibo says, bone-dry. Involuntarily, Haoxuan laughs. His real legacy, right there. Xiao Zhan scoffs. “Too complicated, I’m not drawing that.” He sketches out a sphere. “A ping-pong ball. One half is black, one half is white.” He draws a vertical line down the middle, giving it dimension, shading it into a half-moon. “Do you get it? Two colors, one ball. If you rotate it so one color is facing you, the other is still there. Sound familiar?” Haoxuan glances at Yibo; his gaze is fixed on Haoxuan, stolid. It bores into him. Haoxuan swallows. He dabs his face with a napkin. Xiao Zhan keeps narrating. His pen dashes across the image. “Okay, now spin the ball on its axis. It’s still the same ball, it’s still got both colors on each side. But now that it’s in motion, the colors blend. The ball is.” He wrinkles his nose. “Gray. Should have chosen better colors. But now it’s a whole new thing, still with its component parts. Are you following?”

And the art! THE ART. cloudy-recesses, thank you so so much for letting me include so many of your incredible pieces -- whether they were made especially for the fic or just so fitting that magpieandwhale yelled "THAT ONE! I LOVE THAT ONE!" as we were hashing out what to include.

You can read the whole series at the link above, and see a whole lot more of cloudy-recesses's art on their Tumblr!

[magpieandwhale]

I AM THE LUCKIEST DUCK!!!!

[magpieandwhale]

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!

[magpieandwhale]

Still here, beset by fell beast

Oof, how’s everyone doing? Hope you’re all prosocially distancing and holding up. I am enormously emotionally compromised by The Vampire Diaries these days, my dog Ira is the light of my life, &c &c &c. What a time to and all that, right??????

[lenadraws]

Advent Drawble day 2! Happy Hanukkah!

[magpieandwhale]

TBH REBLOGGING JEWISH BUCKY BARNES FOREVER AND FOR ALL TIME, THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT

[alexdecampi]

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

[magpieandwhale]

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.

[homoeroticism]

John Mulaney gets mistaken for the Flash actor, Grant Gustin, on Late Night with Seth Meyers

[magpieandwhale]

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.

[magpieandwhale]

This is just to say

THAT I HAVE A DOG NOW

HIS NAME IS IRA

MIDDLE NAME GARNET

WE ARE HAVING A LOVELY AND FABULOUS TIME <333333333

[twodotsknowwhy]

Let’s get into the true spirit of Chanukah this year and overthrow the government

[thenearsightedmonkey]

Dear Students,

These images were made by three and four year olds. 

Sincerely,

Professor Skeletor

[magpieandwhale]

Hello again, I’m still not here, but I’m really into this.

[leo-suter]

[magpieandwhale]

Just popping up to say that she’s magnificent and S2 had some really truly, amazing moments, particularly with Peggy and Jarvis, and I miss her and I miss them all.

[leia-organa]

When I was younger I would take criticism really hard. But now it mostly amuses me.

[magpieandwhale]

(STILL NOT HERE!!!!

BUT I! LOVE! HERRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!)

[seabstan]

[themanwholovedflowers]

“Le Parapluie de Fleurs” - The Flower Umbrella

Modeled by Stephanie Johnson

Photographed by Brandon Stanciell

[magpieandwhale]

(I am so not here, but I saw these pictures and found them just gorgeous and have no real way or bookmarking them otherwise, so... hi-but-not, all. Hope you’re doing well! <3)

[magpieandwhale]

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