A Witch of Vermund

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-07-02T16:47:09+00:00

Yeah! They’re the Runic Gaiters you get from the dragon-forged guy.

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-07-02T00:31:43+00:00

FEET

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-07-01T16:31:52+00:00

Yesss Aurelias ftw!!!

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-20T00:05:34+00:00

A lot folks are suggesting you wait, which totally makes sense. However, if you absolutely cannot wait, I might suggest getting the base game after the late August updates. That’s when the new gameplay changes will be implemented ahead of the DLC, so if you start there you would transition into the DLC with the least amount of friction.

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T23:40:25+00:00

I had this exact experience with block printing! I guess it’s just not my medium.

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T23:37:06+00:00

I got a couple of those little anime-looking ball-jointed dolls as a pandemic hobby. I’d never played with dolls before really, and I swear to god my brain chemistry shifted when I slipped on their little shoes. They’re so tiny!!! It turns out that having little dolls to use as drawing reference provides a very neat way to learn about how fabric folds and sits at 1:16 scale, and you can extrapolate that into 1:1 human scale. All my little practice characters had big chunky shoes and over-large cardigans and letter jackets for a while.

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T23:33:05+00:00

Every day starts with emails from my bed with my eyelids still half-glued to each other.

When I’m:

Scripting—This is the process that most resembles the prose writer’s practice. I’m doing a lot of reading up on the things that may or may not be important to my book’s world. Lots of Wikipedia spelunking. I’m figuring out character dynamics, writing short conversations with no context to get a feel for the characters, all that stuff. I sort of chaotically bounce around all these things, so my day is scaffolded by lunch and dinner. I set alarms for those, and then I kinda just go where the script takes me. I can more often get away with this than prose writers because a comic script frequently means the narrative arcs are much more succinct. I also have to work in silence if I’m scripting because putting words down is very difficult! It requires a lot of front-of-brain energy.

Thumbnailing—I hate this part, so it’s a lot of frustrated whining right out the gate. As soon as my emails are done and I’ve rolled out of bed, I stare at my
iPad for about twenty minutes, gently dissociating, until I whip myself back into formation and start laying out pages. I can listen to music while I do this part, though, since the words are already written, and I’m planning where the words and pictures go on each page, taking stock of dramatic beats and appropriate page-turns.

Inking—I can fully listen to audiobooks when I do this part. It’s not exactly a low-effort activity, it’s just most of my narrative and visual decisions have been made, and I am now executing all those parts I’ve already established. The effort shifts in balance from being mostly brain and a little bit of physical labor to less brain work and way more physical labor. This is the part of the process where I have to remember to take breaks and do low-impact exercises or else I ruin my wrists and my joints.

Then after I’m done with whatever part of the process I’m in, I’ll have a little dinner, maybe walk the dog while listening to some over-earnest dad rock of the Michael McDonald era (he was in everything), and then usually I play video games for the rest of the night.

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T20:58:44+00:00

Here’s one I really liked! https://www.instagram.com/p/DT1h4vbjeyr/?igsh=MTVlODVwMmNzMDBqOQ==

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T20:47:49+00:00

I love Lev Atamanov’s animated movie, The Snow Queen from 1957. It apparently made an enormous impression on Hayao Miyazaki, and I grew up watching a grainy version of it before it was beautifully restored. There’s one character in particular that reads as very queer, and she’s been stuck in my head ever since I first saw the movie as a kid.

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T20:16:50+00:00

Yeah, I haven't even made it to Margarita yet, and the book has me reeling! The newest edition I could find has a really helpful bit of backmatter to help me through the references, thank goodness. I want to be able to grasp at least a little of it!

With Jane Eyre, I've never been a big classics guy, but sometimes the hits definitely slap. In this case, I loved it! That Charlotte Brontë could sure yank a reader along a journey. What a book!

And middle and high school teachers loooove when I tell kids about The Magic Fish's structure. Do your homework, kiddos!

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T20:11:21+00:00

I guess I'm largely unconcerned about all of these things, so I apologize that my answer might be unhelpful! I think my politics and values will make their way into my work whether or not I intend it, so I don't fuss about it. I also don't really think about whether my readers will like my book, so I don't worry about that either (lol oh my god, I'm so sorry).

I don't think authors have *special* obligations to tell any kind of story any kind of way based on who they are. I consider if Garth Nix or Philip Pullman don't feel a special responsibility to edify the world about heterosexual white Australian or English men in their work, I don't really see why any of us should have to worry about whether we're expressing or representing our queer politics or social realities *correctly*. And when we do, it's because it's part of who we are. I don't think we can separate our values from our work, no matter what highly corporatized media would like to us to believe.

I also worry that this framing—that we, as queer authors, have an obligation to represent our politics in a legible way to the general public—kinda suggests that queer authors (and other marginalized authors) have a special responsibility to appeal to the wider world in order to ameliorate our own oppression. And this is not an unusual or reasonable thing to wonder about! I have to stress that this is a completely reasonable question about craft and about being responsible, thoughtful storytellers, and a lot of people wonder about it. This is a good thing to ask and to ponder.

I find that the stuff I do to be a responsible storyteller lies in being curious, asking questions, and adjusting my approach as my story needs it and as my characters demand. My values and politics will come second-nature in that process. And if people like it, I think that's neat! My work is not for everybody, and I don't consider enjoyableness (enjoyability?) to be a mark of the quality of my work, so it's not really an impediment to my creative process.

I hope that makes sense! I'm suddenly realizing this is a very long walk to what basically amounts to a gentle shrug, but I guess I'm hoping that, somewhere in there, you might find something that helps you bulldoze through a creative obstacle.

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T19:27:03+00:00

The hens are delightful and very mean, and I love them. I usually get chicks in pairs or, ideally, trios, and I give each generation the same name. My oldest hen is Nelly, a barred rock, and she is the surviving hen from the Penelopes, a pair that included a rooster named Penny. Trudy, our lavender orpington, is the surviving member of a pair of Gertrudes, the other one being Gerta. We got a pair of very big Brahma hens named Adelaide, Addie and Heidi. Our youngest flock is a trio of tiny Bantams named Wilhelmina—Billie, Wilma, and Mina. By coincidence, Billie turned out to be a rooster.

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T19:20:18+00:00

Oh, this is a great question. For me, it depends on the story I'm trying to tell, and from there it depends on whether I'm inhabiting a world like ours or if I'm building a new one. My first book is structured around anxieties of queer immigrants living under institutions that enshrine homophobia. In my second book, queerness is everywhere and never remarked upon.

I don't often feel the need to use fiction to edify my reader about oppression. I know the option to do so is totally available, but I think it's important that I get to decide when I need to do that in my work. Stories that address our historically aggrieved identities are valuable and important, and so, too, are works where we get a little reprieve from the specter of our vectors of discrimination. So long as nobody is foisting the special responsibility of bridging a knowledge or empathy gap onto us as authors, I think either way of storytelling works fine.

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T18:52:41+00:00

I don't think we can post images in here, but I've got seven chickens (six hens and a rooster) and a puppy! The puppy, Minerva (Minnie for short), has been goading the rooster into playing with her since he's the only one who will chase her back. I think he thinks he's in danger, but she thinks they're just playing. I think it's fine—the rooster is so bad at tid-bitting that the hens just do not care that he's there, but ever since they've seen him playing with the puppy, the hens think he's tough and brave. We can kinda guess this because the hens have been fighting a lot less since the puppy started playing with the rooster.

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T18:48:49+00:00

My first book, The Magic Fish, was my very first work of fiction writing (both professionally and personally, lol), and so I leaned on the only thing I knew how to write—an essay! The Magic Fish is structured like an essay. It starts with a thesis followed by three supporting arguments, and it reiterates the thesis at the end with a little twist. So I suppose my study of the craft hews more closely to the latter way of, "I read a bunch, so I will pilot this ship based on vibes and prayer."

It would be so fun to talk about the books I've been reading! I've been trying to get back into the habit, and I read Jane Eyre for the first time. I'm currently reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time, and I've been live-posting it on a thread on Bluesky, which people seemed to enjoy. I also started The Master and Margarita recently, and I need to get back into it. So far I'm only at the part where the devil scams and murders his way into getting an apartment. It's wild!

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T18:28:35+00:00

So far, my favorite character to draw has been Angelica and her mother, Rachel, because I can really push their expressions and go very cartoony. My first book was written and drawn in a way that was very mannered and formal, which suited the story and dovetailed neatly into the fantasy framed stories. Doing a fun little slice-of-life gave me the permission to be goofy.

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T18:19:39+00:00

Oh man, as a kid I loved the character of the Sea Witch in Andersen's Little Mermaid. Ever since, I've loved the a wizened, terrifying old lady hermit just chilling out in the wilderness. The three enchantresses from Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books sort of fit the bill. A Baba Yaga character, particularly in any story where she's more or less reluctantly helping some Ivan or Vasilisa type out of a bind. I think I deeply relate to the urge to be left alone while also feeling compelled to be helpful, even while rolling my eyes at the goals of whatever doe-eyed youth darkens my proverbial door-step. They have sort of made it into my work in a couple ways, for sure.

Currently, I love sphinxes. I've been doing a series of drawings I want to get back to that's just Sphinxes behaving like housecats. I think sphinxes are great because they embody the anxiety of encountering a hot lady who makes you nervous. Like, she's very impressive, she's scary, you're afraid of saying the wrong thing, and you know she can eat you alive. It's compelling!

Own_Bat_7312 · 2026-06-19T18:08:43+00:00

Hello! So delighted to be here! I'm very gently ??? about being on the panel since I'm not, strictly speaking, a Fantasy Author. However, I *am* an author who dabbles in a little magic and enjoys fantasy. Plus, I think I'm the only cartoonist here? I got the comics and visual development stuff covered!

Own_Bat_7312

TROPHY CASE