These comics are like little guessing games that make you want to guess what happens next. After 11+ years of working as an illustrator, I started a personal project to express my curiosity through comics and post them regularly on social media. It has been a fun journey and it rekindles the curious child in me again.
I hope you enjoy these random ideas amidst the sometimes mundane and challenging days in life. When we are born, we are intensely curious about the world around us. Let’s keep the curiosity in our hearts alive and look beyond what we see!
If you are interested in seeing more of my comics and illustrations, you can click here, here, here or here!
If you are curious about what I will draw next, follow me on my social media to check it out!
Almost a metaphor for when ur angry at someone u love and u destroy part of them (mentally) you need help repair the damage. On the less deep side, the cloud just pooped on the tree and broke its head
As an ’80s kid, I’m often nostalgic about that era. I sometimes hear myself speaking and I sound like my grandparents when they bragged about how things were better “before”.
To be honest, I do think things were better before. Ha! The eighties were an amazing time to live in and anyone who disagrees simply wasn’t around yet.
But let’s be honest, some things are just so much easier now, right? I created this comic series called “Strange things from the past” because some things are better now and some things were better then.
I had a blast making it. It was a little travel back in time and I hope you’ll travel too!
If you want to see more of my comics, check out my previous posts here and here.
The best thing in the early 80s was a walkman and you really could walk and run while listening to it. The discman came much later, in the middle of the 80s.
The sound of the dial up modem being so loud you feel like it will wake up the dead when you start it at night. Not even muffling it with stuffed toys helped much.😂
Ah yessss. sitting on my bedroom floor, reading the lyrics booklet (if they had one) or at least going over and over the album art while the new CD played.
Yeah, we’re lazier with numbers today. I only memorize the ones from my closest family members. And if any of them changes a number, that’s it 😂 I let my phone remember the new one.
It seems like most of the news we hear about libraries lately is discouraging, with usage declining and funding being denied. Most people’s first assumption would be that it’s an expected consequence of how people use technology. As e-books and apps that let people obtain them in seconds spread, public libraries fall by the wayside as a way to access media. Right?
Not quite! It’s actually more likely than you think that you can do all of those things—check out e-books, audiobooks, graphic novels, and other media—not by giving more of your money to Amazon for a subscription, but by using your library card, a public service that your taxes are already paying for, to sign into the many apps that public libraries themselves use. You get a wealth of information and entertainment, and library use statistics go up. If you haven’t checked whether you can sign in to these services with your local library card, this is your reminder to do so.
People are trying to get the word out about free library apps
Maybe you’ve heard tips for using apps like Audible “like a library”—that is, returning audiobooks for a refund. But authors who list their books with the service aren’t a fan of people using it that way, as some have complained after reporting being fined by Audible for user returns. If you already use the app and you’re worried about returns, bigger publishers aren’t likely to notice if they’re hit by these fees, but think twice before you return indie authors’ releases.
An author shared why trying to play Audible isn’t a good idea
If you get embarrassed when people ask you when was the last time you read a book, and your New Year’s resolution is to change that, don’t let lack of time or money stop you. Studies once found that while at least 90% of libraries in the US offered e-book lending, over a third of respondents either didn’t know whether their local library did, or thought that it didn’t. We hope that statistic is going down, because librarians’ dedication to giving everyone free access to information certainly isn’t any time soon!
Commenters gave their reviews of library apps, and other tips
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This weekend marked the two-year anniversary of theJustice League movie, prompting a new wave of enthusiasm for the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement. The campaign is driven by fans who want to see Zack Snyders original vision for Justice League, and on Sunday, the films lead actors unexpectedly chimed in. Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot and Ray Fisher (Cyborg) all called for the Snyder Cut to be released, causing the hashtag to trend worldwide on Twitter.
Ben Afflecks involvement is a little surprising because hes finished with the DC franchise. Meanwhile, Jason Momoa and Henry Cavill didnt weigh in, although Momoa has supported the campaign in the past. Sundays tweets prompted fans to wonder if the Snyder Cut is finally on its way, but its equally possible that Zack Snyder just texted Gadot, Affleck, and Fisher and asked them to boost the hashtag on Twitter. Or maybe theyre just personally invested in seeing that Snyder Cut come out! The real issue here is whether a Snyder Cut actually exists, never mind if Warner Bros. plans to release it.
The idea of aJustice League directors cut began after Zack Snyder departed the movie due to a family tragedy. He was in creative control for most ofJustice Leagues development period and filming, but Joss Whedon took over in the final stages, reshooting some scenes and overseeing the final cut. That cinematiccut was poorly received by critics (much like SnydersBatman v Superman), and Snyders fanbase decided was a better version lurking in the Warner Bros. vault.
Zack Snyder reportedly filmed a lot of material that didnt make it into the final cut, like extended backstories for Cyborg, Aquaman, and the Flash, and bigger roles for several supporting figures. Some characters, like the Flashs love interest Iris West, were cut entirely. Supermans role is thought to have changed a lot, with Henry Cavill infamously having to do reshoots while filmingMission: Impossible Fallout, meaning his mustache had to be removed with CGI.
The Snyder Cut campaign delivers a deceptively simple demand for a complicated issue. The hashtag makes it sound like a directors cut is ready and waiting to be released. In reality, Snyders early rough cuts of the film were unfinished, with incomplete CGI and editing. There were also reports from studio insiders describing his version as unwatchable, although others (like Jason Momoa) remain enthusiastic about Snyders extended depiction of DC Comics lore.
While the Snyder Cut campaign is good at grabbing peoples attention on social media, its also known for its obnoxious behavior, tying into the DCEU fandoms ongoing problems with cyberbullying and sexist harassment. Former DC Entertainment presidentDiane Nelsonwound up quitting Twitter due to harassment from Snyder Cut fans, and film journalists often find themselves deluged with toxic messages if they criticize Zack Snyder or his fans.
As it stands, a Snyder Cut could cost tens of millions to complete. Visual effects shots would need to be finished, and the whole thing would have to be edited together with sound and music. Its entirely possible that actors would have to re-record some of their dialogue. Basically, Warner Bros. would have to go through the entire post-production process for one of the most expensive movies the studio has ever made. And while theres a vocal fanbase clamoring for that Snyder Cut, theres no evidence that theres enough of them to warrant that kind of money. Outside of the DCEU fandom bubble,Justice League just didnt have much cultural impact.
In recent months theres been some speculation that the Snyder Cut might come out on the subscription streaming service HBO Max, which is owned by Warner Bros. This is more plausible than a theatrical release and would attract a lot of DC fans to subscribe. Considering the amount of money some other media companies have poured into launching their own streaming platforms, you can imagine Warner Bros. making this decision. But according toThe Hollywood Reporter, no announcement is imminent for any kind ofJustice League re-release. Those tweets from Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck might lend some credibility to the campaign, but it doesnt seem like they were teasing any real news.
As a sequel to the most over-analyzed comic in history, HBOs Watchmen is predictably full of Easter eggs. Some are callbacks to the original canon, some are sneaky little worldbuilding details, and others will remain a mystery until later episodes (hopefully) explain whats up. A list of every Easter egg would probably fill a book, so weve narrowed it down to the most satisfying examplesthe clever details that will deepen your appreciation of the show once you understand what they mean.
This post includes spoilers up to episode 4.
Watchmen Easter eggs
Nite Owls legacy
So far, the only crossover characters between the comic and the show are Laurie Blake (aka Silk Spectre) and Adrian Veidt (aka Ozymandias), with Dr. Manhattan lurking offscreen on Mars. However, there are still plenty of other comic-TV connections, like the Seventh Kavalrys Rorschach masks. Nite Owl is a particularly interesting example because hes actually still alive, although according to Peteypedia (HBOs site of supplementary files), hes currently in federal custody. He and Laurie Blake were arrested for illegal vigilantism in 1995, but while Blake joined the FBI, he stayed in jail.
Nite Owl (specifically the second Nite Owl,Daniel Dreiberg) was a central character in the comic and is roughly analogous to Blue Beetle or Batman: a vigilante who relies on self-made gadgets. His signature vehicle is a flying ship with windows resembling an owls eyes, and we see something very similar in the shows first episode. (Thanks to Peteypedia, we now know that Dreibergs company Merlincorp directly supplies the police with Owlships.) Later we see Angela Abar wearing a familiar pair of night-vision goggles, and there are a couple of background references to Nite Owls impact on pop culture,like Angela drinking from an owl mug, or one of her kids wearing an owl costume.
The most eye-opening Nite Owl revelation is that he designed Laurie Blakes now-infamous blue dildo. In a (very funny) interrogation transcript from Blake and Dreibergs arrest, she says,Dan was convinced I was still holding a candle for my ex, so he made me a big blue dildo as a f###-you. Literally. The ex is, of course, Dr. Manhattan.
Sons of Pale Horse
Pale Horse was a (fictional) death metal band in the 1980s, beloved by a youth subculture known as knot tops, roughly akin to skinheads. Theyre a recurring background detail in the comic until their final concert in Madison Square Garden, where they live up to their apocalyptic name by dying in Adrian Veidts alien squid attack. HBOsWatchmen pays tribute to them with a 1990s band called Sons of Pale Horse, who became popular among the Rorschach crowd. In fact, when you order the first volume of the shows soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, it arrives in the form of a Sons of the Pale Horse re-release called The Book of Rorschach.
In the vinyl LP edition, the albums liner notes reveal a whole backstory for the band and its cultural impact. Apparently, their music was intended to satirize the idea of worshipping toxic vigilantes like the conspiracy-obsessed Rorschach, and the band was shocked to learn their audience was full of people like the Seventh Kavalry. In other words, Sons of Pale Horse are a direct reference to the way characters like Rorschach attract an unwanted fanbase in real life. The bands in-universe role even extends to a fake review published inRevolver magazine,which incidentally reveals that hero rock became a popular subgenre in the Watchmen timeline, with David Bowie dressing as the Silk Spectre, and Iron Maiden releasing a vigilante concept album.
Elsewhere in the show, we see more obvious Pale Horse imagery, like Adrian Veidts white horse, and Chief Crawfords Comanche Horsemanship painting.
Real-world crossover characters
Much like how Sons of Pale Horse was inspired by Nine Inch Nails (ie. the real band who recorded that fake album),Watchmen is littered with real-world references highlighting differences and similarities with our own timeline. President Robert Redford is the most obvious example, but there are plenty of others with more subtle roles. Ezra Klein (in real life a political journalist who co-foundedVox) is a Redford administration spokesman. Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. has an onscreen cameo as theTreasury Secretary, acting as the face of Redfords reparations campaign for survivors of racist violence. And Elvis Presley is apparently still alive, resurfacing in a Hanoi nightclub in the 90s, tying intoWatchmens ongoing fascination with conspiracy theories.
Laurie Blakes twisted sense of humor
Episode 3 uses a long and bizarre phone call as a framing device, cutting between the main action and Laurie Blake having a one-sided conversation with Dr. Manhattan on Mars. She tells a series of elaborate and rather unpleasant jokes about god, mortality, and superheroes, while Dr. Manhattan (if hes even listening) fails to reply. The scene works perfectly well on its own, but it makes a little more sense if you know two facts about Lauries backstory: her father was the vigilante known as the Comedian, and (as we learn from Peteypedia) Laurie later adopted the superhero moniker Comedienne, after retiring the Silk Spectre pseudonym she inherited from her mother.
That last part is a rather puzzling choice fromWatchmens writers because its unclear why Laurie chose to follow in her fathers footstepsboth by taking his surnameand by continuing his legacy as the Comedian. Edward Blake raped Lauries mother when they were both in the Minutemen superhero team, and in later years we see him shoot a pregnant woman, and generally behave like a colossal asshole who represents everything bad about vigilantism and American imperial power. Hes a cross between the Punisher and the more conservative iterations of Captain America, with a sadistic streak and no moral code. So, why did Laurie decide to acknowledge him in later life, even adopting the name Blake?
TheNew Frontiersman newspaper
TheNew Frontiersman is a far-right tabloid in the comic, prone to printing conspiracy theories and stirring up trouble. At the end of the comic, we see Rorschachs journal in their office, leaving things open for his notes to be published, revealing the truth of what happened with Adrian Veidt and the vigilante murders Rorschach was investigating. HBOsWatchmen makes it clear that the journal was indeed published, which is why characters like the Seventh Kavalry are so dedicated to Rorschachs memory.
And as we see during a scene at a newspaper stand, the New Frontiersman is still going strong. Peteypedia reveals that the paper is owned by Roger Ailes, who once attempted to sue Veidt Enterprises for harassing him because he published Rorschachs journals. (In public, Veidt was politely dismissive of Rorschachs accusations, and most people were satisfied to believe Veidts words over the ramblings of a dead weirdo in a mask.)
Senator Joe Keene Jr.
The Keene Act was the first law outlawing masked vigilantism in 1977, and HBOsWatchmen continues its legacy withJoe Keene Jr., an up-and-coming GOP senator whose father introduced the original Keene Act.
Joe Jr. is the man behind the Defence of Police Act (DOPA), making Tulsa cops wear masks and hide their identities. On the surface, this might feel like a weird reversal of his fathers ideology, until you realize thatboth policies are designed to benefit the police. The Keene Act was introduced in response to police strikes over vigilantes taking their jobs, while DOPA (which supposedly protects police from reprisals) gives the Tulsa PD an alarming amount of freedom to be as violent and aggressive as they want. The Keene family also has a history with the KKK, which we examined in detail here.
Pirates
There are plenty of recurring motifs inWatchmen, including smiley faces, clocks, eggs, and pirates. InWatchmens timeline, superhero media is limited to things like Sons of Pale Horse and that corny-lookingAmerican Hero Story TV show. Superheroes are real, so theyre not really suitable for the kind of blockbuster escapist entertainment we enjoy from Marvel and DC. Instead, people in theWatchmen universeseem to prefer swashbuckling stories about pirates and cowboys, harking back to the pre-superhero days of American comics.
The comics best-known example is the serialized pirate horror storyTales of the Black Freighter, which the show references on a couple of occasions: a Black Freighter Inn in Tulsa, and the egg farmer in episode 3 reading the novelFogdancingby Max Shea, who wroteTales of theBlack Freighter. We also see Angela Abars kids playing dress-up as a pirate and an owl, and one of Angelas coworkers uses the pseudonym Pirate Jenny, named aftera song fromThe Threepenny Opera.Episode 1s Bass Reeves cameo illustrates where the superhero/swashbuckler timelines diverged, depicting him as the kind of Zorro-esque masked vigilante who would become real and commonplace in later years.
This post includes spoilers for episode 1 ofHBOs Watchmen.
HBOsWatchmen begins with the Tulsa Massacre in 1921, immediately signalling the shows thematic focus on racism. But before we even see the riot itself, theres another piece of real-life history onscreen: 19th-century lawman Bass Reeves, portrayed by Jamal Akakpo in a fictionalized black-and-white movie.
Bass Reeves was a real historical figure, the first Black U.S. marshal. He lived a terrifically action-packed life, arresting over 3,000 people and often being described as the real-life Lone Ranger, the quintessential Wild West hero. Alongside Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Lone Ranger was also a precursor to the superhero genre, combining masked heroism with the 1930s trend for cowboy fiction.
Within the first 60 seconds ofWatchmen, that Bass Reeves cameo ties together several important strands between the TV series and the original comic. First of all, hes depicted as a masked crime-fighter, which is obviously the central concept of the show: a world where cops (and vigilante outlaws) wear masks to disguise their identities. Secondly, hes a figure whose legacy was largely erased by a racist view of American history, going hand-in-hand with the shows choice to depict the Tulsa Massacre.Then we have theway hes introduced, which refers back to a recurring idea in the comic: the way public figures, particularly heroes, are reinterpreted by pop culture and historical bias.
Instead of getting his own historical flashback, Reeves appears as the main character in a silent film watched by a young Black boy during the Tulsa Riot. Onscreen, we see Reeves arrest a corrupt sheriff and reveal his crimes to the local citizens, all while wearing a black hood and a mask. When he takes off the mask, his identity subverts our expectations for the notoriously whitewashed Wild West genre. The young boy is spellbound, but although the film is based on a true story, its kind of a fantasy. In this kid-friendly version, the white villagers cheer Bass Reeves when he arrests the white sheriff. Lynch the thief! String him up! they cry, as Reeves holds a rope around the sheriffs neck. Meanwhile, in real life, the boys neighborhood is being ransacked by his white neighbors. Black people are being shot in the street, their houses burned in broad daylight. Theres no hero coming to save them, especially not someone wearing a badge. (Decades later, the episode actually ends with the lynching of a white police chief, accompanied by a suspicious music choice.)
In the real world, swashbuckling adventurers like the Lone Ranger were overshadowed by the rise of superhero comics. But in the alt-history timeline of Watchmen, things went differently. Masked crime-fighters (albeit ones without superpowers) became a real thing, starting with the Minutemenin the 1940s. The reality of these heroes made them less appealing as an escapist fantasy, so historical adventures persisted as the dominant comic book genre. The original run ofWatchmen included excerpts from a gruesome pirate serial calledTales of the Black Freighter, mirroring the real-life evolution of darker superhero comics in the late 20th-century. As the historical timeline ofWatchmendiverged from our own, so did its pop culture.
In the same way that the Tulsa Massacre was a historical turning point for the Watchmen universe, that Bass Reeves movie represents a turning point in fictional tastes. In our timeline, this kind of movie would evolve into the superhero genre while Westerns faded into the background. But inWatchmen, it was the precursor to real vigilantes like the Minutemenand the shows protagonist.Wearing a black hood, a police badge, and domino-mask makeup, Sister Night (aka Angela Abar, played by Regina King) is an obvious visual riff on that 1920s depiction of Bass Reeves. Considering their Oklahoma connection, Reeves may even have been Angelas direct inspiration when choosing her costume. Her circumstances, however, are very different.
Between Reeves, Abar, and that boy in 1921, we see three generations of Black Americans with very different experiences of law enforcement: a rose-tinted fictionalization of first Black U.S. marshal, a shockingly realistic depiction of racist violence in the 1920s, and a modern-day scenario where a detective investigates a white supremacist group, meting out her own form of police brutality. And in 2019,Watchmens pop culture landscape is different, too. Posters advertise a TV show calledAmerican Hero Story, a historical drama about the first generation of superheroes. Just like how Bass Reeves life was bowdlerized into a corny adventure movie after his death, the Minutemen became fodder for schlocky true-crime TV.
Adult Swim, Cartoon Networks network for adults, is under fire after sharing a comic to Twitter on Sunday. Commenters accusedBelgium-based artist Brecht Vandenbrouckes comic of having anti-trans and anti-journalist messaging.
The four-part comic strip shows five identical peopleeach with beards, pigtails, a green dress, and a muscular buildlooking up at the sky with dread.
Oh my god!! Its coming! says one of the characters in the first strip. Another character says, We have to hide!
The five are then seen running to hide inside a cave. The next strip shows the big ominous presence they were running fromTHE TRUTH written in 3D, hanging above the village, and casting its shadow on green patches of land.
The next image shows the five people inside the cave seemingly calm and happy. One of them is drawing a unicorn on a notepad, one is holding a mic and a piece of paper, another is writing Lies Lies Lies with spray paint on the walls of the cave. One of them is saying, Oof! At least in here we can safely work on our journalism !!!
The people running away from the truth, which they perceive to be an ominous presence of sorts, are happy inside a bubble. The activities theyre engaged inarts and musicare seen as congruent with writing lies. The unicorn illustration further suggests the people are removed from reality.
Some people on Twitter said that by showing genderbending characters in a cave avoiding the truth,the comic pushed blatant transphobia.
Some wear their hearts on their sleeves for the entire world to see. Others hide their emotions much better and keep their thoughts secret. However, no matter who we are, what we do, and how well we may hide it, we all have inner monologues that reveal our true feelings.
Cartoonist Tommy Siegel draws witty comics featuring candy hearts that resonate very well with people because they show our honest feelings which we might be scared to share with everyone else. A lot of us would probably agree that we’ve had some of these thoughts running through our minds at least once or twice in our lives. Upvote your favorite cartoons, keep scrolling and let us know in the comments what you enjoyed most about the comics.
However, candy hearts are far from the only thing Tommy likes to draw — he has a wide repertoire of cartoons that drew in more than 83,400 followers on Instagram and another 54,500 on Facebook.
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“I hail from Richmond, Virginia. But for the last ten years, I’ve been based in Brooklyn, New York,” Tommy told Bored Panda in an interview. “I’ve been a full-time musician for most of my adult life in the band Jukebox the Ghost, so cartooning as a serious pursuit is still pretty new for me!”
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“I’m self-taught, aside from some drawing lessons in elementary school. I kinda put drawing on hold for a couple of decades while I was focusing on music, but returned to cartooning recently,” Tommy explained about his relationship with art. “My drawing skills increased dramatically in the last couple of years. A few weeks ago, I completed a challenge to draw a comic every day for 500 days! It was… an insane thing to do and incredibly difficult, but it definitely helped me develop a voice and challenged me to become a better artist.”
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Tommy also told Bored Panda that his “style swings wildly — I try not to pin myself down. The candy hearts series was part of the 500-day project, so they were interspersed with political cartoons and some totally dumb stuff.”
“When I’m not drawing candy hearts comics, I definitely draw a lot of butts,” he jokes. “So I guess I would describe my current style as “lots of butts and sometimes candy hearts.”
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“I drew a comic for Valentine’s Day with candy hearts on a movie date. I noticed it really seemed to resonate with people and realized that the idea of candy hearts having their inner monologues printed on them was a great setup to try again.”
The artist further elaborated about his cartoons: “Sometimes they’re just light and funny, but my favorites are the ones that get at something deeper about human emotions.”
“I don’t think of them as being unromantic, personally. I just think it’s a good format to draw attention to people’s inner lives, which are often in contrast to the way they appear from the outside,” he added about the candy heart comics.
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See Also on Bored Panda
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The Better Health Channel writes that it’s important to communicate clearly in relationships because nobody’s a mind-reader. That’s why we should all find the time to talk without any modern distractions like TV or smartphones, accept responsibility for our feelings, genuinely listen to others without butting in, and avoid the desire to always be right.
Traveling is the perfect medium for experiencing different cultures complete with all sorts of art, music, crafts, and traditions. But visiting other countries is usually not just all roses.
With that idea in mind, artist Malachi Ray Rempen decided to share his traveling experience and situations in the form of fun comics dubbed “Itchy Feet Comic”. This weekly cartoon chronicle is mostly about travel, language learning, and life as an expat. It’s just about any bizarre situation you can imagine yourself in while traveling.
“Itchy Feet Comic deals with two very specific areas: language learning and traveling. One of the things I love about Itchy Feet Comic is the minute observations on the experiences that are so universal that you cannot help but say “That is so true!”” – says the artist.
So scroll the page and have a quick walk around the world!
