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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 16h

#sketchbook

JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 19h

I loved Operation Mindcrime and their previous records. But the one with Jer City Woman just landed flat. I think I expected something more interesting and creative.

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 19h

Yes, a very famous metal band from the 80s.

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 1d

I watched it so many times in the late 90s! So many double features on VHS with Hard Boiled.

a man with a watch on his wrist is playing harmonica

Alt: a man with a watch on his wrist is playing harmonica

media.tenor.com

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 1d

See... I loved Operation Mindcrime. I discovered it shortly after its release. Then when the band came out with a new album around 1990 or whatever... Jet fucking City Woman hit the airwaves and I felt the same pain I felt upon watching Highlander 2. Betrayal, sorrow, anguish, despair, RAGE!!

JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 1d

I accidentally listened to Jet City Woman by Queensryche again. It was a dirty trick... I was busy reading an article with some random music in my ears. I became aware that this insidious, trash song was playing as I heard Tate's chorus fading out. I will never be tricked like this again.

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 1d

I know Top Jimmy! I've heard Drop Dead Legs at least once. But not the rest.

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 1d

Midnite Dynamite by Kix is a stupid, generic, sappy cock rock song that makes me forget life when I'm in the right mood. It's very dumb but very fun if you can turn off all critical faculties for 3:51.

There is nothing special about this song. Its power is rooted entirely in my own experience.

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 1d

I just heard Van Halen's "Girl Gone Bad" for the first time in my life. I was a metal/rock teen in the 80s and I somehow never listened to VH's 1984 album. EVER. I am not sure how I dodged it.

The song was ok.

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 1d

This might be the first time I've ever heard of Dimension 20.

JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 1d

I accidentally listened to Jet City Woman by Queensryche again. It was a dirty trick... I was busy reading an article with some random music in my ears. I became aware that this insidious, trash song was playing as I heard Tate's chorus fading out. I will never be tricked like this again.

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 1d

Face doodle, 2B graphite. #Sketch

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 3d

Right! Me too. No clue about release dates or anything. It was always a discovery. Only later as a teen did I discover comic stores, subscriptions, etc

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 3d

I found Spider-Woman, Star Wars, and John Carter comics in the spinner racks of various convenience stores when I was 8 or 9 years old. Magical moments!

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 3d

Lol. I totally get it. But I'm old enough that my childhood comic book memories are spinner racks and magazine stands at the grocery store. And flea market boxes.

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 3d

They have become TTRPGs everywhere, I think. But "table top" is what I've heard.

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 3d

I do the same thing when someone posts about "RPGs" and they keep mentioning graphics. An RPG is a game you play at a table with friends and dice. [insert old man yells at clouds]

I think the actual hot take here is that TPBs are inferior to floppies (or "singles" as they are sometimes called).

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 3d

Now the world has gone to bed
Darkness won't engulf my head
I can see by infra-red
How I hate the night
Now I lay me down to sleep
Try to count electric sheep
Sweet dream wishes you can keep
How I hate the night

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 3d

Don't know how hot this is, but floppies are the definitive comic book format and having a stack of them with all their wonderful covers is the kind of deep magic that most wizards only dream of. And, unlike a TPB, they lay open flat.... which is a massive advantage.

Liam McGuire @liammcguire.bsky.social · 6d

Anyone have a particularly hot comic take?

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 4d

The lonely robot. Stranded?
#ZSF

Gray tone drawing of a small robot standing on a small rocky moon.

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 4d

Could be!

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 4d

#ZSF
Last of the XV-99 drop team still intact, XV-99D roams the surface of tiny moon Nebula 14-A patiently waiting for further orders from RIO, the robot high command. Luckily its atomic batteries were undamaged in the crash... it has plenty of time.

Ink and gray tone drawing of a robot or someone in power armor in the darkness under a starry sky

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 4d

Beautiful work!

Wolf Studios Art @wolfstudiosart.bsky.social · Aug 4

Whether the shoulder straps are coming down or going up depends on your outlook on life.

Illustration of a curvy woman with shoulder length hair. She is wearing a white dress and is adjusting the shoulder straps.

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 4d

Snips from a sketchbook from around 2000-2001. I was in a weird place in my head. I went through a whole crash and burn after my 20s passed and I wasn't quite sure what to do with the rest of my life.

Snip of a list: Hate List: My attitude, this heat, my shaking desk, my job.

Pic of a page from a journal. "My sketches are mundane. My pen strokes fall dead. I get sick at the notion of extended artistic projects. I fear." There's a lazy sketch of a man with no shirt. "Pointless, lazy pen-brush strokes. So what to do? Give up?"

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 4d

Yep. It's a classic format. I could easy just make books like this to draw in, and I have. But I was feeling lazy and these are nicely trimmed.

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JV West @jvwest.bsky.social · 4d

I ordered one of those 48 packs of 4.25 x 5.5 blank notebooks off eBay. That size is often called "mini". It's what you get when you fold a sheet of 8.5 x 11 into 4ths.

The GSM of the paper is higher than printer paper, so I'm looking forward to dangerously doodling in these little fuckers.

Pic of a stack of wee tiny sketchbooks with craft paper covers.

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