🐈⬛The Illustrated Collection of Black Cats' Musings🐈⬛
As a quick break from Drawtober-- I made a lil black cat zine recently!!! :D
I somewhat mentioned it earlier, but I also wanted to show some "behind the scenes," like the inspiration for the pics + exactly how I put together the zine itself, if anyone was curious! you can check it under the cut C:
~2 years ago, my sister moved away to California. She loves taking long walks and sent me photos of little nooks from around her new area not long after.
Since I couldn't visit anytime soon and was feeling a lil sentimental, I decided to draw some of the photos, add some cats for extra coziness of course).
Looking back on the illustrations a year later, I had a vague feeling all of them were linked. so I planned out an idea for a zine, since I love turning things into little stories!
The original title was "Black Cat the Poet" but after sitting on it a bit, I felt the little blurbs were more just little passing thoughts. So I changed the title to "An Illustrated Collection of Black Cats' Musings" and it feels more fitting :)
So exactly how they're made! -
I ordered a bunch of double-sided prints. Each 8.5x11 sheet = 1 zine once cut up. I actually included EXTREMELY faint cut lines on the prints, if you look superduper close you might see them lol.
After cutting them into individual 2.5x5" pages, I use a hole punch to make two holes on each mini page. I use the holes to tie some white waxed thread through to bind them all together.
And there!
TBH a large part of the idea for this format stemmed from my desire to make zines that are simple and affordable to ship-- basically things that can fit in a lil' rigid envelope ($2 domestic / $4 international cost) rather than a package ($6 domestic / $21 international cost......).
Also, it's much less expensive for me to order 40 unbound/uncut 8.5x11 prints, than to order 40 14-page zines. It all works out quite nicely, and all the extra handmade touches, while leaving each one a bit imperfect, also makes them more special than if it was mass-bound i think. I still like the convenience of ordering things pre-bound sometimes, but this one was a fun change.
So yeah! Thanks for reading if you got this far :D
I have a question. How are you all so sweet??? I am smiling, blushing, giggling because of your wonderful comments 🥺🥺🤭🤭 thank you thank you thank youuu
You have Courtney Eaton pouncing on LottieNat posts on twitter and Instagram and liking them within like half an hour of posting, and Samantha Hanratty bringing up shipping, particularly MistyNat in her last few Q/As as if it's something she's thought long and hard about (and tells her costars about); meanwhile, Natalie herself, Sophie Thatcher does not acknowledge the fandom at all, very much exuding the attitude of "please just let me work; I cannot be alone with my thoughts for too long, so I've signed onto 3 other projects already"
At the same time, the Shauna actresses are on the frontlines, fighting for their character's honor, but in the process, throwing the others under the bus; first with Sophie Nelisse's, "I mean, Lottie's killed people too! Why is no one mad at her????" and then Melanie Lynskey's "yeah Shauna makes bad decisions but if you think about it, Misty's really the scariest one of them all"
And then there's the Taissas, who are just vibing, content to hang out together on Tawny's ranch while she replies to the occasional TaiVan comment with #notacting #IjustfellinlovewithLaurenAmbroseforreal
When working on AU Steve’s design, I kinda wanted to make him racially ambiguous, largely depending on whether I went for him being a god-like entity that eventually took on a human appearance based on several people he’s met and befriended throughout his time in the Overworld, or him being artificially made. A lot of the references I used however were Indian people and other darker skinned Asians, and I also partially based his facial features on those Olmec statues. Some of the pixels on his face I translated into birthmarks.
Story-wise I may never put that much in but I also like to imagine that the Ghasts were the original ruling inhabitants of the Overworld but were banished to the Nether. Herobrine is basically another entity who is set free a long time after humans came to settle down and stole Steve’s appearance, etc. There’s a lot.
Ersatz makes me keep thinking, why would everyone join to the military, because eternal life sounds shit, if you have nothing major going on.
Them choosing to join being said explicitly, the high benefits for their families also being hinted as well as the dangers/issues that coming with rezzing.
And like, I wonder how many joined for some greater good, how many to ensure someone medical bills? Or escaping a worse fate?
I've had a couple days to process some health shit going on with me, and I think it's important enough to share with everyone that follows my socials. Read more for surgery, reproductive health talk, and the ol' diagnosis I'm dealing with, + some heavy shit:
Last week, I went for some minor surgery to hopefully fix some heavy periods I was dealing with, and remove a polyp found on an ultrasound I had done in the spring.
There was a bunch of polyps, and I wasn't able to get the ablation as it wasn't recommended. Cool. Samples were taken and sent off to be tested.
I found out this week it's the early stages of endometrial cancer. Great. The big, nasty C was not how I pictured ending 2025. A referral to the cancer clinic was sent off, and I heard back from them today; I have my consult on December 10.
Now, I got all my fingers crossed that a hysterectomy will take care of it, and I won't have to do the radiation/chemo song and dance; I've been wanting to yeet my uterus for years because my periods have gotten more awful in my late 30s/early 40s, so I'm happy it's going to be fucking gone. The cancer part is the scary thing because they won't know if it's spread from the ol' womb until they get in there to remove it, and send more tissue to be tested.
I'm doing okay, though, all things considered. Art has been a good distraction, and rediscovering my <3 for ol' Dietrich is another plus keeping my brain occupied. The sooner my uterus is out, the better though. But cancer is a scary word, and while this is a very treatable one from what the doctors have told me, it's still scary.
I'm optimistic; I had a titty squish in October, and it came back clear, so..
but in the far back corners of my mind, I can't help but think of the people I've followed on social media/youtube/etc, who didn't survive their cancer. And it's a bit silly considering their cancers were aggressive, low survival odd types, but it still kinda sticks with you, you know? And I don't want to be one of those people who just.. disappears from everything without saying something, and you wonder if they're still around somewhere, or gone forever.
