working on a new Malkydungeon but I can't quite figure out what style suits it best, I keep wanting to try a more sketchy illustrative style compared to the flat colours of the last couple of stories

little dudes are my very favourite type of historical find

Reminded me of a really interesting paper about Norse place names in central/ lowland Scotland and if there was deliberate settlement in deserted areas on Scotlands 11th-12th century border. It was a topic I'd meant to research more if medieval bluesky has any more suggestions?

Was trying to look at US actions through the context of previous decades, the death squads the right wing coups that it was always doing this shit but it also struck me would stuff like watergate have any impact at all if it happened now? would it even register as a blip on the radar?

I love how Tolkien is pretty clear Gollum wore clothes but every adaption is like get this little boney freak in a loincloth pronto

As a Tolkien fan I just find all this depressing as shit

Do you ever think about how there was a 12th century Sheriff of Edinburgh called Thor poms.ac.uk/record/perso...

Curious about sacred natural sites in Estonian culture? Read this: “The article presents an overview of the diversity of ways of conceptualizing sacred natural sites that are current in Estonian culture and how sacred natural sites are used at different levels of collective memory.”

one of my favourite paintings, you ever imagine what it must have been like to experience this

favourite fella

Bird report: A male Reed Bunting

I really don't know how you're meant to live on a planet where fascist paedophiles get to do whatever they want without consequences forever

any international event hosted in the US should be treated like Israel-including Eurovision - don't watch it, don't participate, don't acknowledge. make the US a pariah. not specifically for this but this is good a spur to action as any

Has anyone else found as they get older their tolerance for adverts in general lessens? Like there's youtube videos I've been enjoying or the like that I just straight up walk away from because there was too many adverts, I just find it insufferable now

that grok shit is reminding me of that scene in from hell where the detective wonders who is sending in all the letters from people pretending to be jack the ripper and its just a bunch of different dudes from all walks of life

watching that D&D movie there were so many of those over elaborate fantasy name drops it made me realise this must be what its like for people new to LOTR hearing "Crebain from Dunland"

fired up new vegas for the first time in 8 years still amuses me how you can just swagger into completely random places in a wasteland and people will immediately blurt out their life history and local gossip, people thrive on connection even in the darkest timeline

Bird report: Chaffinch

There's the big man

actively complicit in aiding a brutal genocide and the authoritarian clamp down on peaceful protestors protesting that genocide, truly a mystery for the ages.

Super proud of Doctoral researcher James Davison who has just submitted his thesis "Trans Lives in Early Anglo-Saxon Period Communities: Translating Archaeological and Literary Records" co-supervised with Bonnie Effros. Early insight here: theconversation.com/the-burials-... #medieval #archaeology

As some one making a map of Strathclyde I appreciate how difficult/ speculative it can all be. But it bugs me still seeing maps showing Alt Clut that size when we have records of Northumbria annexing the plain of Kyle right up in Ayrshire, its only in the later 9th/10th century Strathclyde expands

because im such an insufferable nerd i keep thinking about that bit in the silmarillion where Morgoth gets mad he can never find the imperishable flame to create his own world and so he has to just corrupt the world that is instead and how thats what ai feels like to me

the search doesnae work on here, direct messages doesnae work on here, it wont let me see art made by adults, the owners of the site are transphobes that habitually delete the accounts of people going through a genocide this site drives me up the fucking wall

Was thinking about the multi-cultural aspect of the Govan Stones again and if Strathclyde despite the sack of Dumbarton was a relatively safe port from the Viking storm in the 9th century for refugees. I have a Gaelic bard in the royal court at Partick in my comic to try portray this idea.

Regretfully for the sake of time I might have to cut out comparing the Thor fishing stone with Christ's harrying of Hell saga

Here's one of the bits of historical inspired art I made that I was happy with this year

Remember that ZA/UM gets money from Epic for these, and the creators of the game made their work available on @archive.org because they've been removed from earning from it

Look at this lad

I'm working on a talk about the Cumbrians of Strathclyde but i keep getting sidetracked with discussing how interesting Viking sculpture is

its #nationalrobinday so here's a pic of the Robin in the woods I feed every morning, he flew over to me when he saw me and started singing

As someone that does a lot of art and other work with Norse related stuff that last post reminds me why I should regularly remind people exactly where I stand on that pathetic nazi appropiating horseshit

it is said the Police are still looking for a person of interest that remained "tight-lipped" about his reasons for being at the scene of the incident

Didn't mean to ramble as much but here's a wee bit of fun art about place names as a way to ground historical context and the thought of a Norwegian invasion fleet enjoying a day out at Millport

In Defiance of Death

A month ago I adopted a one eyed hamster from my local animal shelter

it would be irresponsible not to experiemnt with video game piracy, seems to be a big deal thats not going away so maybe time to check it out

the thing that drives me insane about genAI/chatgpt bullshit is that brother, the process IS the work IS the entire thing. no artist comes to art for the final result. the final result is inextricable from the fucking labor that came into making it

I keep trying to find a more modern translation of King Haakons saga but the only one that keeps coming up is an 18th century one that refers to Scottish people as the 'Scotch'

the most important piece of art ever made www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Kz...

this is what its all about

why did seeing Max Von Sydow whos meant to be playing a Christian high medieval feudal ruler randomly get cremated like he was a barbarian warlord or something make me laugh so much

An illustration I made inspired by the Thor fishing stone from Gosforth church, I found the idea of a church filled with carvings from Norse myth very evocative

in my latest update for my Viking comic I have a mother admonish her son who just witnessed a fucked up traumatic event not to cry to emphasise the alienness of this ancient culture and then remembered the last time I got blood taken the nurse saying how disgusting it is if men cry during it

If someone was trying to DM me on here I'm never going to be able to see it as my current government are fash shit heels sorry

hello

working longer hours this year wiped me out in terms of comic making but I've finally got time now over winter to get back into both Hogback Saga and more short Malky Dungeon stories

Made some Disco Elysium art imagining how the Pale would afflict wildlife that strayed near it

how it felt playing ck3 as a Norse Pagan when I saw there was Muslims fighting alongside my armies after the pope launched a crusade against me