It's been a long and hot summer. 

This weekend is another scorcher. Funny thing, the weather. It's something you can always talk about no matter the circumstances. And so it goes for how we observe and learn ever and ever...

Platforms. Markets. Places where people congregate and advocate. Hubs of places real and imagined. Virtual and living. Lingua franca annalusa.  Call it culture? Build it by being better.  

New platforms, new markets. The opportunity exists everywhere within a cycle. 

What does it mean to visit similar themes all your life? To observe the changes by gazing the navel? 

So long as happiness exists sadness is real. 

Human after all //

Ray 

Happy August Mythopoeians! 

First, we have a major announcement! Websites are important for those, right? In any case, we are launching our next Kickstarter for Skies of Fire #7 tomorrow, August 4th, 2020 @ 8:00 AM PST.

This is our largest issue yet and what we've been building up to for some time. It's a doozie you don't want to miss.


Okay, onwards to other topics! What should we talk about today? How about... culture?
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This is another conversation sparked by the excellent Glendale Story Games Meetup, of which I've been a regular part of since the beginning of the year, but is a topic I've thought about often in the past. 

Why are some schools good at certain activities, like football or Speech and Debate? Why are some companies known for certain characteristics, like Amazon with logistics or Apple and design? How much of these aspects are inherent as a result of talent, and how much is transferred via culture?

The above definition implies a tangible quality to culture - things of permanence that can be viewed, transcribed, consumed, and experienced. Certainly these aspects are a major part of what culture is as a whole; I personally think of art, music, and food (in that order) when I think about the word. But what about the intangible? Can you learn a culture just by consuming? 

Happy July Mythopoeians! 

Before writing these monthly blog posts I usually take a couple of days to figure out the topic. This month's topic coalesces around themes of fate and chance. I was prepared to go with the title "Disclaiming Fate" but that was before I disclaimed fate by pressing shuffle on my music and low and behold... good ole' Bob Dylan with words most prophetic.
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So - what's been going on with us this month? Work, as usual! The ongoing pandemic has slowed us down slightly when it comes to logistical issues - it took Vince over a month to get a package I sent to him to fulfill our latest Kickstarter. Business aside, much of our creative work has been centered around the philosophically inane tabletop games. 

Dice. Ever think about them? Prevalent in almost every culture in some way. A source of entertainment and vice. A tool of chance and excitement. But why? 

Roleplaying games presuppose agency among participants in elaborate games of make-believe. We come up with skins other than our own to enact, imagining for a moment that we are someone or something else, living experiences beyond the mundane of the everyday. It's an intoxicating subject for us personally because it strikes to the core of our being. My favorite activity on the playground was the sandbox. Alas, games of athletics and skill have always eluded me but games of imagination? Fictional symbols and hierarchies? I've always been 'good' at those. 

Within the framework of play in an imaginary space there exists a push and pull dynamic between the shared collaborative world of the participants and the individual shards they inhabit. Though the rules may change, the commonality among these game systems is a resolution mechanic to determine the uncertain.

If you've ever played Dungeons and Dragons, you'll recognize the formula: D20+ Skill Modifier vs. Difficulty Challenge. Simpler, more collaborative story games, like the excellent ​Microscope by Ben Robbins, prescribe players assign a karmic "light" or "dark" tone to scenes, indicating to the participants of the direction therein. 

With either system, the purpose is the same: to disclaim agency in favor of fate. When the dice roll, we know not where they will land. When we say a scene must end "light" or "dark," we scribe down the future as predetermined, even if the details remain unseen. 

Yet, we play these games to find out what happens. There are no indicators of score, or even competition really. You can make your character better, you can do what you want - so why allow for the possibility of failure, or even death? 

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One way I've tried to frame this thought is through the lens of constraints and possibilities. Perhaps that's just a fancy way of saying fate vs. free will, but I'm not sure. 

We all live with the reality of inevitability. We are born into circumstances we cannot control, shaped by environments difficult to escape. Life constrains us in ways subtle and obtuse. Yet, within that framework, we all have the agency to calculate, prepare, fight, and control. The possibilities are endless, even if the loops conform around the edge of inevitability. 

We all die the same. The universe, as far as we know, is not unique.

But what if we were unbounded? What would immortality look like? Devoid of the constraints of fate, would we see patterns all the same? Or would the infinite canvas of possibility paralyze? What is something without circumstance, subject to the whims of only itself? Is that the holy? Does it remain such if the Self defines?

Me, personally, I like rolling them dice every once in a while. It's fun! And you never know what'll happen until you do. 

​Ray ​

​I can see the whole history of the human race,
It's carved right there, on your face - 

Ahoy Mythopoeians!

Another month, anothertragedy. The United States burns as injustice and unrest swirl together in a volatile cocktail all too predictable. The divisions sowed in our deep rooted righteousness propagate into fury and indignation producing hate so despised.

Alas, alas...

Black and White. Order and Chaos. Conscious and Unconscious. War and Peace. A divide is the easiest and most recognizable of the patterns of the symbolic we filter our understanding from whence all others derive. So goes my yibber yabber as I selfishly seek to understand why.

Four years ago, Vince gifted me The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I, being the pompous and selfish git that I am, did not open the book until this month. It was assigned as reading in the 11th grade, but I was one of those kids who relied on summation to enrich analysis in a process known as bullshit. So, for the longest time I dismissed the book, the gift, thinking that I already understood the contents therein. 

How wrong I was. Campbell's work is presented as a mix of story guide, academic analysis, and self-help book, all culminating in a experience that touches on the religious, universal; simple, and profound. It's one of those books whose meaning grows deeper the more I learn - about myself, my craft, and the world around me. Writing is the process of rewriting, as understanding is the process reexamining, and -- I write about this stuff a lot, don't I? 

So yeah, I've been thinking a lot about symbols lately with a definite slant towards the simple ones. In terms of creative output, it's been a great month. We've wandered the endless expanse of the Wastes, searched for treasure in the depths of a trash bin, and transcribed the rules that govern a universe. 

All of which seems somewhat trivial as the world around us burns.

Will we ever know peace? Realize the dreams of a better tomorrow? Is paradise an idea we can only conceptualize, to be imagined but never realized, cursed by our own selfish relativity? And what happens when we can climb no higher, when our hands breach the vault of heaven itself?   

I suppose we live to find out. 
​
Ray ​

Hey Folks! 

We recently put up artist submissions over on our email: submissions@mythopoeia.us. We went through all of the regular comic channels, which to us looked like /r/comicbookcollabs, Deviant Art, the Facebook group Connecting Comic Book Artists and Writers, and the old stomping grounds of Digital Webbing! 

Looking for artists is always a fun experience for us. We love looking through portfolios and seeing what kind of new talent is out there. That said, thought I'd explore a little what we think makes a good portfolio and what should be included when looking for art jobs. 

So all of this is just from our experience over the years and our preferences. There's not a single format for these things. Okay? Alright. Here we go.
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The instructions are always the first test to any job postings. Oftentimes employers will ask you to format your email in a specific way and to only send samples to a specific email. Make sure you follow the instructions to the letter. 

For our submissions, we will only look at the email: submissions@mythopoeia.us. If you send us a direct message or send your portfolio to other emails we will ignore them for the most part. Don't do that. Sometimes we'll ask to give the email a specific title. This is a test to make sure you follow the instructions.

​For any sort of job or formal application, make sure to always read the instructions carefully. 

Your submission should consist of a short cover letter and a clear link to a professional portfolio. Your portfolio should be easy to navigate and contain all of the samples you'd like to show on one page.

Oftentimes, we'll get multiple links to individual art. While we still look at those portfolios, it leaves a bad first impression. We go through hundreds of portfolios every time we post. The easier you make it for us to go through them, the more favorable our opinion is. 

Chances are if you send multiple links we'll only click on one of them, and oftentimes we don't click on the first one.  The only way to make sure we see what you want us to see is by sending one link, clearly indicated in a cover letter or as an attachment. 

Introduce yourself and how you found the job posting and why you think you would be good for the job. No need to go crazy here - maybe 200 words maximum. Still, it's nice getting a feel for who we're talking to and is much preferred over just a blank email with an attachment.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, don't write an entire essay. Like in life and dating, if you make it known you want something really bad it can come off as desperate. 

We can tell within ten seconds whether or not a portfolio is going to make it to the next round. That's why we recommend keeping your portfolio simple and clean and to make your best samples the most prominent.  Although separate from the technical aspects of art, if you show strong design skills in the layout of your portfolio it shows strong visible sensibilities which is always a plus.

At the end of the day it's about the art. If you have the goods, the above is sometimes optional but still an indication of professionalism. Make sure you have a varied portfolio that shows different aspects and techniques. For comic sequentials, here's what we think is important:

• Framing
• Expressions
• Anatomy
• Movement
• Background 
• Perspective

If you're looking to work in comics, we highly suggest having work that covers the technical know-how above. We recommend having between 5-8 piece in your portfolio. Anything more than that probably won't get a look. And although we're not artists ourselves, we usually can tell when there is a technical deficiency in work. 

A common mistake we see is relying two much on one character / two character composition in the form of pinups or covers. Those are great, but make sure if you want to work in sequentials to show you can frame and draw perspective too. It doesn't necessarily have to be a sequential page, but we need to see that in your work. 

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Thank you everyone who submitted! We love seeing artists work and wish we had time to respond each and every one of you. Hope this was useful to somebody. Keep working on honing that craft!

Ray