Paul Gadzikowski's The Hero of Three Faces

Replacement tumblog for @heroofthreefaces, deactivated with no notice, reactivated with no explanation, now an archive. Fanfiction, but it's comic strips with stick figures, but they're triangles. he/him, 12 years old since 1971

[paulgadzikowski]

It's been a little over a month since I dropped out of Tumblr and moved over to Bluesky. I still check over here about once a week though, to see whether there's any indication the mods have shaped up (actually I'm not sure how to check for that); and see whether there's anything in my notes I have a comment on. Looks like I'll still be posting here once or twice a month.

Meanwhile at Bluesky where there's no porn ban I've been going a little crazy with the NSFW stuff. I generally got like this every spring already (I'm now calling it my annual second puberty) but till now for posting I'd have to go to Pillowfort which has never been my primary social instead of to, you know, my primary social. I've even gotten myself a scanner so I can do it with pencil drawing and have refreshed my memory of the production procedures I used on Arthur, King of Time and Space. If you're interested it's here. I've even been drawing OCs. I never invent OCs.

[paulgadzikowski]

*sigh* I dunno man. Bluesky has always had great user filters for filtering out NSFW posts if you don't want to look at them, and in fact I gather that was one of their selling points - but now they're implementing an update which blurs or hides all posts of any account which has been marked (self-marked? moderator marked? either? not sure) as posting anything NSFW. It's redundant and unnecessary with what's already in place, and in fact actively renders what's in place useless for blurring or hiding only such an accounts' NSFW posts, and (preaching to the choir here unless you're new on Tumblr since 2018) this makes it not only a career killer for artists and sex workers but it's silencing and oppression of posts advocating against the persecution of artists and sex workers. Same old story: use the NSFW posters to build a userbase and then boot them out as undesirables.

My user filters there are all turned off but with the posting I've been doing lately I might get hidden to users who want/need not to see the Doctor boffing the characters I want to draw naked but who enjoy my humor and progressivism. And another social forum is engaging in procedures which offend my principles.

If it gets intolerable there I may end up wanting to start curating more active feeds at Pillowfort and/or Dreamwidth than I have now, or to crawl back here with my tail between my legs without having waited for Tumblr to fix what drove me off. Or start curating more social life offline, but that's part of what I need moving to Chicago for fixing, and the timetable for that isn't predictable, and it was never meant to be an all-the-time thing anyhow cuz I like not having to go out to be social.

EDIT 6/1/26 it's so unpopular it's been rolled back

EDIT 6/7/26 I just noticed that for the last week there was a typo in one of the tags on this post, #war on cummunication. Not inappropriate for the subject of the post, but #war on communication is what's my existing tag regarding the fake administration's persecution and prosection of free speech.

[paulgadzikowski]

Doctor Who: Christmas special plans scrapped as Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf withdraw

The BBC has ended its arrangement with Bad Wolf and Russell T Davies. There will be no 2026 Doctor Who Christmas special.

So, I know what you're thinking now, or have already been wondering if you saw this news earlier today: What's going to be impact of this on The Hero of Three Faces?

I've already been drawing the Billie Piper "Doctor" as the future Doctor in some Three Faces crossovers set during what would have been Season 2027 if there had been going to be one, even if it had consisted only of the now-cancelled 2026 Christmas special*. My plan, of course, was to edit the images once it was announced who was following Ncuti Gatwa in the role for the special and next year. Then recently I decided to keep the "Piper Doctor" in some of these cartoons anyway, as sort of AU Doctor like the Lumley Doctor and the Grant Doctor, both of which have been established in Three Faces continuity as Doctors of alternate fiction-planes sort of like the Pine Kirk in relation to the Shatner-Wesley Kirk or like the other two Spider-Men in No Way Home. This decision was precipitated partially by the cancellation of Buffy: New Sunnydale after some of those characters had already appeared in Three Faces, so the never-weres at least have each other to hang out with.

Meanwhile there was still going to be a gap year where Season 2026 proper was failing to happen. Though the Gatwa-"Piper" regeneration came onscreen at the end of Season 2025, I've continued drawing the Gatwa Doctor as Three Faces' current Doctor in crossovers set in this year's continuities (e.g. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, and Supergirl when it comes out), even giving him his granddaughter Susan as a companion** in compensation for continued lack of resolution for her Season 2025 story arc (after the planned resolution was cut from the finale), as will almost certainly now be the case when Season 2025's head writer is gone. The point is, I was asserting the regeneration comes just after the hiatus - right before the special when, presumably, the new Doctor would start airing, whatever the followup air schedule developed to be - instead of at the beginning of the hiatus.

So what to do now, when there's going to be no new Doctor, due to there being no Doctor Who, for at least 2027*** and possibly, as those of us fearing the doom of repeating history, years or even decades? (It's no use telling me, "There's plenty of EU you know," when e.g. Big Finish can't give me a post-Gatwa incarnation which won't be consigned to the same AU status as the Grant Doctor**** [who the BBC website was touting as the official ninth Doctor till the tv revival was announced] once there are screen adventures again, assuming I live so long.)

Today I went through the existing Three Faces cartoons set in next year's continuity, decided which ones the "Piper" Doctor could keep, and in the rest replaced her with the Gatwa Doctor. Like the McCoy Doctor in my pencil dailies of 1989-1996, the Gatwa Doctor will remain the current Doctor in my work not just in 2026 continuities but until there's a screen successor.

The in-text rationales, and notations concerning the out-text rationales updated due to today's development, for both the "Piper" Doctor and the Gatwa Doctor persisting are respectively here and here.

* In my spreadsheet the Christmas specials have always been tracked as episode zero of the following year's season, because the first one introduced a new Doctor at the beginning. Unlike every single Christmas special regeneration since then (except, of course, the one we're not after all getting this year). ** Much like I gave the Hurt Doctor a companion, a Time-War-generated-AU version of Cass. I don't invent an OC if I can avoid it. *** The guy whose skeet I reblogged reposted might say "You don't know there's going to be no Doctor Who in 2027" but yeah, the lack of anything like hard dates in the official statement tells me no Doctor Who in 2027. **** Notwithstanding Grant's face in the incarnation collage in Rogue. Unless Rusty's put out an explanation that's never reached me, I think he was just winding us up.

[overthinkingao3]

We write for ourselves, but we post for others.

(this came out of a conversation in the comments on a previous post about an author threatening to stop updating a fic because of lack of engagement)

So there’s this idea that fic writers should write for themselves and not care too much about stats or engagement,

and i totally get the sentiment behind that. if writing becomes entirely about stats and external validation, something important does get lost - creative freedom and joy, conviction in your own writing

but i also think:

“i write for myself, but i post for others.”

because posting fic is not only self-expression. it’s social. ao3 is called an archive, but emotionally it often functions as a community space.

people post for connection, for participation, for others to bear witness to their pain and trauma and grief,

and i don’t think most people are asking to be admired so much as acknowledged. there’s something deeply human about wanting another person to encounter something that mattered to you and go:

“ok, yeah, I see what you were trying to say. I see you.”

especially because fanfic is often people processing very real feelings through fictional characters at a safe distance, one step removed,

and then uploading that deeply personal thing into a shared archive and hoping somebody else might connect with it.

And i think that’s why it hurts so much when you summon up the courage and post a fic into the void and you get nothing back,

and then it’s like,

does anyone see me? does anyone even care?

[haunted-hideaway]

I think most of us want to be seen. We want to connect with the people who read our stuff and have them say yeah, I’ve experienced or thought that too. I felt that emotion with you. It’s why we read. We want to connect. Nothing wrong with that. Reviews tell us we connected enough to someone that they wanted to say so. No reviews or readers can sting because it means people aren’t seeing us. Because what we write, even if it’s about Those Characters and Their Problems, is often about what’s on our mind and heart. Or about what we need and aren’t getting. Our writing is often revealing and it can sting when there’s no validation in the form of someone nodding, tipping their hat, and saying “I see you.”

[paulgadzikowski]

It's been a little over a month since I dropped out of Tumblr and moved over to Bluesky. I still check over here about once a week though, to see whether there's any indication the mods have shaped up (actually I'm not sure how to check for that); and see whether there's anything in my notes I have a comment on. Looks like I'll still be posting here once or twice a month.

Meanwhile at Bluesky where there's no porn ban I've been going a little crazy with the NSFW stuff. I generally got like this every spring already (I'm now calling it my annual second puberty) but till now for posting I'd have to go to Pillowfort which has never been my primary social instead of to, you know, my primary social. I've even gotten myself a scanner so I can do it with pencil drawing and have refreshed my memory of the production procedures I used on Arthur, King of Time and Space. If you're interested it's here. I've even been drawing OCs. I never invent OCs.

[byjove]

I think it would be so funny if there was a show about King Arthur and the knight of the Round Table where a different knight(s) joins the Round Table every episode and it gets to the point where the cast is like 500 people and absolutely no one is acknowledging that there are like 400 people in this court. Like a gratuitous amount of knights. The plot randomly pivots to knight or knights of the week and then back but it’s not an anthology exactly. Some of them die the same day they join, some randomly disappear from the story and others are technically there for the rest of the series but doing fuckall. Occasionally Arthur will be like “Where has Sir Whatever gone?” and everyone will shrug. Very important quest surrounding the major knights you’re expecting and a minor knight no one has seen for 5 seasons randomly joins in. You need a knightly spreadsheet to join in.

[byjove]

This is all handled very dryly by all the other characters, except for Arthur who occasionally breaks the 3rd wall, addresses the camera and says something like “This is all very confusing.” when the plot hits maximum ridiculousness.

[byjove]

There are several knights who do not speak Welsh and this is depicted by them speaking various dialects of old French and Gaulish and Brittonic splinter languages with a bar at the bottom that just says ‘I do not know what he is saying.’

Sometimes Arthur will be like “Where has Sir Whatever gone?” and someone is like “He has become a saint.” or “I believe he has become king of Dumnonia.” and there’s a random quick montage of this random knight getting up from the Round Table, riding out of Camelot and having religious visions or conquering an entire kingdom or drunkenly wandering all the way to Constantinople for no particular reason with the implication that this was all occurring while the other knights were debating a riddle or something asinine.

[byjove]

I think it would be so funny if the first shot of the series was Arthur sitting alone at a comedically large actually round table. Court utterly empty except for him and Sir Kay and like 2 guys from his father’s reign. And in the closing scene of the series he’s sitting in the same spot but there are hundreds of knights crammed into the room around him, sitting on each other’s laps, on the table, pressed flat against the walls to fit. They outgrew and surpassed this ridiculously large table several seasons ago and have been lowkey sitting on top of each other without addressing it.

[howieduet]

Every now and then there's a fwoosh and a scream as someone forgets and sits in Siege Perilous.

[byjove]

Galahad is stacked on top of Percival in the Siege Perilous and they keep talking over each other.

[byjove]

periodically Percival will say something and Galahad will elbow him really hard and repeat it and Percival will be like “OW. Lancelot, are you seeing this?”

[makiruz]

Pretty sure this is actually Canon, like the Round Table is magical and can accommodate hundreds of people

@heroofthreefaces @paulgadzikowski what's your professional opinion?

[paulgadzikowski]

Yes, it's in the Vulgate I think, and I incorporated it into AKOTAS:

[paulgadzikowski]

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that leaving Tumblr and settling at Bluesky as my new primary social forum would mean that I wouldn't be reminded at the time and wouldn't realize till the next day when looking for something else that the Good Omens finale had dropped

[paulgadzikowski]

The Hero of Three Faces is fanfiction crossovers, but it’s comic strips with stick figures, but they’re triangles. Click here for this cartoon’s homepage. Or see this blog’s FAQ, or my archive tumblog’s FAQ. Cartoons may contain unmarked spoilers. Cartoons posted to Tumblr 11:00 (Central US time) daily are the previous day’s new update and the posts are pinned to the top of this blog. Cartoons posted to Tumblr 23:00 daily are from the archive and the posts are pinned only during annual summer hiatus of new updates.

Thanks for reading.

[paulgadzikowski]

I'm gone, gang. I hit a wall and I'm gone. I'm not gonna delete these blogs, and I may post rarely and look at yours to keep up, but I won't be posting regularly or often unless they shape up around here. You can always find me at the Hero of Three Faces site, with up-to-date links to my current socials at the bottom of the About page.

Thanks for the joy you've given me. I want you to know I believe in your song.

[paulgadzikowski]

The Hero of Three Faces is fanfiction crossovers, but it’s comic strips with stick figures, but they’re triangles. Click here for this cartoon’s homepage. Or see this blog’s FAQ, or my archive tumblog’s FAQ. Cartoons may contain unmarked spoilers. Cartoons posted to Tumblr 11:00 (Central US time) daily are the previous day’s new update and the posts are pinned to the top of this blog. Cartoons posted to Tumblr 23:00 daily are from the archive and the posts are pinned only during annual summer hiatus of new updates.

Thanks for reading.

[paulgadzikowski]

The Hero of Three Faces is fanfiction crossovers, but it’s comic strips with stick figures, but they’re triangles. Click here for this cartoon’s homepage. Or see this blog’s FAQ, or my archive tumblog’s FAQ. Cartoons may contain unmarked spoilers. Cartoons posted to Tumblr 11:00 (Central US time) daily are the previous day’s new update and the posts are pinned to the top of this blog. Cartoons posted to Tumblr 23:00 daily are from the archive and the posts are pinned only during annual summer hiatus of new updates.

Thanks for reading.

[evelily-deactivated20260503]

@staff @humans @photomatt

Genuinely go fuck yourself,

Salem did nothing besides be a beacon of love, Black positivity, and support for his transfem friends. He made beautiful art to express his Blackness, the experience of being trans, and his desire to make people with beautiful bodies be seen, and I guess we just can't have that positivity here, or were you tired of banning trannies you decided to be racist as well?

After everything he went through, this is how you treat him?

Between this, and the previous terming of Yaybunnies, it must one again be reiterated that Black people being loud and positive about their Blackness is not allowed on this racist site.

And, because the userbase is also just as racist, it can be even harder to drum up as much awareness and positivity for is drummed up for even white transfems.

Don't let them get away with this. Reinstate @wolfertinger66

Again, fuck you @staff @humans @photomatt

Ghouls, every last one of you behind the controls of this.

[paulgadzikowski]

This may have been the last straw for me. I followed @wolfertinger666 and I know that his blog was not deserving of being termed. He's not even the first followee this has happened to. Hell, it happened to me once with no apology or real explanation. For more'n ten years I've spent most of my waking hours with my Tumblr feed open in one tab but I feel like logging off now and I'm going to. All three accounts. There are Three Faces link posts in the queue for today and tomorrow but aside from those I dunno if I'll be back. Watch the Tumblr link at the bottom of the About page at Three Faces (which is where you can find links to my other socials).

[dduane]

TikTok folk, beware

Via Bluesky:

“am so upset right now, TikTok quietly added a feature which turns on an AI feature on all the TikTok’s you have already posted to allow Ai to remix and make content of your TikTok’s and I didn’t know, you must go to privacy settings on your TikToks to turn it off yourself, want to warn others 💔”

[evelily-deactivated20260503]

@staff @humans @photomatt

Genuinely go fuck yourself,

Salem did nothing besides be a beacon of love, Black positivity, and support for his transfem friends. He made beautiful art to express his Blackness, the experience of being trans, and his desire to make people with beautiful bodies be seen, and I guess we just can't have that positivity here, or were you tired of banning trannies you decided to be racist as well?

After everything he went through, this is how you treat him?

Between this, and the previous terming of Yaybunnies, it must one again be reiterated that Black people being loud and positive about their Blackness is not allowed on this racist site.

And, because the userbase is also just as racist, it can be even harder to drum up as much awareness and positivity for is drummed up for even white transfems.

Don't let them get away with this. Reinstate @wolfertinger66

Again, fuck you @staff @humans @photomatt

Ghouls, every last one of you behind the controls of this.

[paulgadzikowski]

The Hero of Three Faces is fanfiction crossovers, but it’s comic strips with stick figures, but they’re triangles. Click here for this cartoon’s homepage. Or see this blog’s FAQ, or my archive tumblog’s FAQ. Cartoons may contain unmarked spoilers. Cartoons posted to Tumblr 11:00 (Central US time) daily are the previous day’s new update and the posts are pinned to the top of this blog. Cartoons posted to Tumblr 23:00 daily are from the archive and the posts are pinned only during annual summer hiatus of new updates.

Thanks for reading.

[paulgadzikowski]

man-and-atom replied to your post “The Hero of Three Faces is fanfiction crossovers,...”

OUCH!

I like this one a lot and I hope it goes far.

Thanks for reading.

[yourobedientserpent]

West Coast Falconry Break-In

Dateline: 21 Apr 2026

Last Friday, 17 April 2026, my sister, brother-in-law, and I were driving up to West Coast Falconry in Marysville, California, to participate in one of their classes. On the way there, we got a phone call from them: in the early hours of the morning, someone had broken into the Falconry, coaxed the birds out of their enclosures, removed their bands and jesses, and destroyed and vandalized much of the falconry equipment. At the time of the call, all of the birds were still missing, and the sheriff had yet to arrive on the scene.

West Coast Falconry is owned and operated by a master falconer, with a small staff of dedicated people who are devoted to these birds. They run on a tight budget, so this has been devastating both emotionally and financially.

The Falconry's birds include falcons, hawks, owls, and one eagle. These birds are captive-bred or rescued and depend on their handlers for survival.

As of yesterday, four of the birds are still missing.

Local news reports:

A GoFundMe page has been launched, and includes regular updates on the status of the missing birds.

Some notes, based on the comments I have seen on other sites:

At this time, there are no reported suspects in the case. I understand the impulse to immediately blame PETA or other "animal rights" groups, but this is also rural California, and there are plenty of bored teenagers and Trumpinistas out there as well. Please do not turn the comments into a morass of unfounded accusations about whatever perpetrators you might find most likely.

This is not some roadside petting zoo or a "Tiger King" situation. West Coast Falconry is dedicated to conservation, education, and the rehabilitation of injured animals. Please do not turn the comments into a place to spew venom about either the practice of falconry or West Coast Falconry itself.

[hustlerose]

when was the last time you listened to a whole album? (front to back, no pauses no skips)

today

past week

past month

past year

i don't do this ever

Voting ended onApr 21

also tell me which album!

[anghraine]

so I’m looking at short story publishers (fantasy)

Tor, cream of the crop. 25 cents a word. Stories can be read for free (YES). Slowish response time at ~3 months. Prefer under 12k, absolute maximum is 17.5k. Don’t bother if it’s not highly professional quality. SFWA qualifying.

Crossed Genres. 6 cents a word. Different theme each month (this month’s is “failure”). Submissions must combine either sci-fi or fantasy with the theme. Response time 1 month. 1k-6k, no exceptions. SFWA qualifying.

Long Hidden, anthology from CG. 6 cents a word. 2k-8k, no exceptions. Must take place before 1935. Protagonist(s) must be under 18 and marginalized in their time and place. Must be sci-fi/fantasy/horror. Deadline 30 April. Response by 1 October.

Queers Destroy Science Fiction. Sci-fi only right now, author must identify as queer (gay, lesbian, bi, ace, pan, trans, genderfluid, etc, just not cishet). 7.5k max. Deadline 15 February. Responses by 1 March. You can submit one flash fiction and one short story at the same time. (My network blocks the Lightspeed site for some reason, so I can’t get all the submission details. >_>) Probably SFWA qualifying?

Women in Practical Armor. 6 cents a word. 2k-5k. Must be about 1) a female warrior who 2) is already empowered and 3) wears sensible armour. Deadline 1 April. Response within three months.

Fiction Vortex. $10 per story, with $20 and $30 for editor’s and readers’ choice stories (hoping to improve). Speculative fiction only. Imaginative but non-florid stories. 7.5k maximum, preference for 5k and under. (I kind of want to support them on general principle.)

Urban Fantasy Magazine. 6 cents a word. 8k max, under 4k preferred. Must be urban fantasy (aka, the modern world, doesn’t need to be a literal city). 

Nightmare. 6 cents a word. 1.5-7.5k, preference for under 5k. Horror and dark fantasy. Response time up to two weeks. SFWA and HWA qualifying.

Apex Magazine. 6 cents a word. 7.5k max, no exceptions. Dark sci-fi/fantasy/horror. SFWA qualifying.

Asimov’s Science Fiction. 8-10 cents a word. 20k max, 1k minimum. Sci-fi; borderline fantasy is ok, but not S&S. Prefer character focused. Response time 5 weeks; query at 3 months. SFWA qualifying, ofc.

Buzzy Mag. 10 cents a word. 10k max. Should be acceptable for anyone 15+. Response time 6-8 weeks. SFWA qualifying.

Strange Horizons. 8 cents a word. Speculative fiction. 10k max, prefers under 5k. Response time 40 days. Particularly interested in diverse perspectives, nuanced approahces to political issues, and hypertexts. SFWA qualifying. 

Fantasy and Science Fiction. 7-12 cents a word. Speculative fiction, preference for character focus, would like more science-fiction or humour. 25k maximum. Prefers Courier. Response time 15 days.

Scigentasy. 3 cents a word. .5-5k. Science-fiction and fantasy, progressive/feminist emphasis. Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. 15 cents a word. 3k maximum. Any sci-fi/fantasy, they like a literary bent. (psst, steinbecks!) They also like to see both traditional and experimental approaches. Response time two weeks. 

Beneath Ceaseless Skies. 6 cents a word. 10k maximum. Fantasy in secondary worlds only (it can be Earth, but drastically different—alternate history or whatever). Character focus, prefer styles that are lush yet clear, limited first or third person narration. Response time usually 2-4 weeks, can be 5-7 weeks. SFWA qualifying.

Clarkesworld. 10 cents a word up to 4000, 7 afterwards. 1-8k, preferred is 4k. Science-fiction and fantasy. Needs to be well-written and convenient to read on-screen. Appreciates rigour. No talking cats. Response time 2 days. SFWA qualifying.

Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. 6 cents a word. Any length. Science-fiction and fantasy (along with fantastic horror). Good world-building and characterization. Clear straightforward prose. Response time three months. Yes, OSC is editor-in-chief. SFWA qualifying.

Interzone. Sub-pro rates if anything (but highly respected). 10k max. Short cover letter. Science-fiction and fantasy.

[minutia-r]

Whenever I see a post like this, I feel like I have to tell people about the Submission Grinder.  I just did a search on it and it came up with 135 markets that pay for fantasy short stories. You can search by genre, pay rate, length of story they accept, etc, and it’s constantly being updated, which a post like this can’t be, and you can also use it to keep track of what you’ve sent where and when, and since a lot of people use it for this purpose it’s got a lot of good data about response times and so on. If you are trying to sell fiction or poetry on the regular, it is such a useful tool and I encourage everyone to use it.

[starsandatoms]

A couple updates:

Check the Grinder regularly! Markets open, markets close, all is chaos, hail the Submission Grinder.

SFWA pro rates have increased since this post; they keep track monthly of which markets are qualifying (i.e. pay pro rates): https://www.sfwa.org/?s=market+report

Read. Read a lot. This will not only keep you from submitting things to places that are just plain a bad fit (I don’t want to say Strange Horizons won’t take your story if it includes even one joke, I’m just saying everything I’ve read there has made me cry), but it will also make you a better writer. I’m not saying that if you don’t keep up with what’s contemporaneous at least a little bit you’ll never get published…I’m just saying that’s something that certain writing friends of mine who write a lot and have never been published have in common. There is so much out there it’s basically impossible not to find something new that you like. Go read.

Seriously though don’t submit to places you know nothing about. It’s a waste of everyone’s time including your own. If you don’t read their stuff because you don’t like it, then, reciprocally, they’re not going to like your stuff!

Translunar Travelers Lounge isn’t pro but they’re still the best. Never read a story there I didn’t love. Just, genuinely, wall-to-wall bangers. I’m not affiliated with them in any way, I just think they’re neat. Go read.

[murphysangel]

Reblogging for great links