(Various) Stuff and nonsense etc

☆ So, I took Karo's drawings down to the framing place! And I did not die! Amazing. :D The woman who runs the gallery/frame joint was very helpful, and it wasn't any trouble to find a suitable matting/frame for those. (Also, she kept gushing about how adorable the Small Trolls painting was, heeeee.) And now that I have this, I'll be able to switch into this frame any future drawings I acquire that happen to be in A5 size. (Siiigh, I really wish I had more display space....) And now that I've done this, I think the next framing project will be to get a proper frame for that one I commissioned years ago from my pal Nunuut (this one); I still love it so much, and the cheapass frame it's in really does not do it justice.

☆ ALSO I discovered that the gallery/frame shop... is also a yarn store. ?!! I didn't even know we HAD a yarn store here. And they have all kinds of LOVELY things, including some Alberta-sourced alpaca yarn that I've been interested in trying for a while, and -- well. This is wonderful and terrible. xD Easy access to expensive yarn? Awful! (Awful for my wallet, that is.) But it's nice to know that I won't need to place an internet order if I want to buy some new needles, at the very least. ...And this reminds me that I reaaaallly should finish the project I have on the go. And block the one I previously finished. Oh dear.

☆ I've had to raise my Camp NaNo goal several times this month. Currently at 10k, and I'm only about 400 off from hitting that... I'm so pleased, even though I feel like I don't have a lot to show for it. :D I have so many drafts that need editing, oh dear....

( A list of those, for the record )

[Rec] Slavonica

I've stumbled across a webcomic very relevant to my interests: Slavonica. Short fantasy stories inspired by Slavic mythology and culture, oh yesss! Specifically, drawing on/setting in Poland - the artist/author is herself Polish.

Some of you might have seen the short comic "Deal" on tumblr, in which a witch tricks the god Veles (!!!). Well, "Deal" is the first story in Slavonica. In the next (much longer) story, "The Warlock's Apprentice", it jumps to another character - dear Sambor (I adore him). And then the third story, "The Snake King", currently in-progress, centres around yet another character. I expect that when "Snake King" is finished, we'll come back to either Sambor or Mojmira the Witch again, if the author's comments are anything to judge by.

The setting + source folklore are obviously a huge draw for me, but the art is pretty cool too, if that style is to your taste. It certainly suits my taste, anyway. And I like what we've seen of the central characters so far. (I want to give Sambor a million hugs and feed him all kinds of delicious food and braid his hair, pffff... Help, I think I've fallen in love with this poor kid.)

A neat thing: while this is a minor detail that has only come up in the author's notes, and is unlikely to appear in the comic itself - the author has stated that Sambor is nonbinary*. I just kind of appreciate that they have decided to make it clear that they see their character that way, regardless of whether the subject will come up in any of the stories Sambor appears in.

So! I'm glad I took the time to read this - I've been meaning to ever since it came onto my radar a couple of weeks ago, but wasn't able to set aside time until this weekend. The comic (or comic series, perhaps one could say) isn't actually very lengthy, so if you do decide to check it out, it won't take long to get through it. The above Tumblr post for "Deal" contains that story in its entirety, and "The Warlock's Apprentice" is only 38 pages. I have no idea how long "The Snake King" will be when it's finished.

A few caveats:
-Slavonica is hosted on Tapas rather than its own website. I am not a fan of Tapas' site layout; maybe it looks better on mobile (I have no idea) but on desktop it feels kind of cluttered and scroll-y and I just... don't like that.
-Some portions of this comic are marked as Mature due to situational nudity/violence (nothing graphic, though). So, you need a Tapas account in order to read those pages, which is kind of annoying.
-The updates are erratic. Following this would necessitate subscribing, I think, since it doesn't adhere to a regular update schedule.

But, those are all fussy details, really, and don't have to do with the content of the comic itself. So, if you liked "Deal", I do suggest reading "The Warlock's Apprentice" at least, since that one is complete.