Welcome to the Art of Dina M!

Well… Summer hasn’t been very good to me. Weather has been pretty lousy, though I suppose I deserved that after complaining about how hot June was. I spent a lot of July and August sick… got a nasty cold, then an ear infection, and just as I recovered from that, I got another ear in faction in the OTHER ear. Then I got another cold. I was pretty exhausted at the end… but I’m starting to feel better.

But my old computer Valeria is not feeling better. In fact, recently she decided that enough was enough and stopped functioning. And really, I can’t blame her. She was an old ASUS ROG from 2014 and nine years is a respectable age for a laptop… especially since she kept performing at ALMOST peak form for much longer than I had expected. Sure, there were a couple of issues, most notably the battery had been shot to hell and ol’ Val only worked when she was plugged in… and the keyboard had a few loose keys (though since I use a separate gaming keyboard with mechanical keys anyway, that was less of a problem)… but she faithfully ran every program, streamed movies and TV series in high definition up until the very end.

It was only the last few months I noticed that she was getting tired. Things were lagging just SLIGHTLY more, and the hard drive was getting clogged; even deep cleanings didn’t do much. I was pondering whether I’d have to get a new laptop soon, but hoped Val could hang in there until Christmas at least… She still ran all the programs smoothly with only a few minor hiccups, despite being the ripe old age of nine. I got an external 2TB harddrive to store pics, music and video files, I cleaned vents, I defragged what stations that could be defragged, and ran several cleaning programs.

But in the end, it was too much for Val. One Tuesday morn, she gave up. I could no longer get her to work. In the end, I had to face that the old ROG was no longer functioning and I needed to upgrade to a newer model.

It took some time to find one. I wanted at least something that was DECENT quality-wise, with a large enough screen at at least 1TB of storage space, even if I might not have the cash to spend that I’d had back when I gol ol’ Val. I was pondering another ROG, but as bad luck would have it, the ROGs I had my eyes on were either not in stock, or they were FUCKING EXPENSIVE.

I thought I had a decent candidate when I found an ASUS ROG Zephyrus at a pretty hefty discount, but I was just a little too late and it was sold out.

In the end, I found my new computer… an ASUS TUF A16.

It was a bit of a downgrade from the ol’ ROG; it was a 16-inch screen instead of the 17-inch I previously had, and the storage was 1TB instead of the 1.2TB of the ROG… but of course, with almost a decade of advancement in computers, the specs were better… and this new computer would run Windows 11, which Valerie had been too old to do. And the price was pretty reasonable, too. I checked out some reviews… the reviewers’ enthusiasm for the TUF 16 varied a little, but even the less enthusiastic reviewers said it was a decent gaming laptop. And the TUF 16 was in stock in computer stores near me, meaning I wouldn’t have to wait for ages for delivery….

And so, after having placed in a reservation for a Click&Collect at a computer store in town, I set out to fetch and collect my new computer. Which I then took home, and on the first boot-up decided to name “Amarys.”

I was very grateful for that 2TB external harddrive, because it meant I had a backup copy of most of my files… and the ones that weren’t on the harddrive were on OneDrive. So I ended up not really losing any content at all, though I needed to re-download a number of programs. It went ALMOST without a hitch. Even my passwords and log-ins, I managed to recover with no problem… it did help that my MobileStudio Pro was running Windows on the same account, and was more than willing to provide.

That’s not to say Amarys wasn’t a little hesitant to start cooperating at first. After the first startup and Windows setup, she wasn’t quite sure if she really liked her new surroundings, and responded with a few slow moments and program crashes, plus one rather baffling section where she insisted on showing all on-screen text (but not the pictures or videos) in grainy low resolution. Luckily, after a huge amount of Windows updates, a few restarts, and quite a bit of time spent tweaking Windows settings and screen calibrations, we managed to reach some kind of an understanding, and she began functioning properly.

Sure, she’s not quite as eager to get started as Valeria was; she takes a lot longer booting up, and recovering from sleep mode takes longer too, but once she’s up and running, she performs great. Programs are running, movies are streaming, graphics are sharp… even with the slightly smaller screen we still have some good media performances here. In the end, Amarys started to get what I really wanted from her, and began cooperating.

We celebrated the new partnership by watching Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake. 

So, going forward, I have a new computer. Hopefully this’ll pick me out of the slump I’ve been in. I’ll see you later!

I didn’t do a whole lot for this site in May… been working more on Project ERYSS and Seven Favours, and did a few commissions, but very little for the site. However, you can read the new Chibi-Dina comic, Chibi-Dina’s Pride, which I did to celebrate Pride Month…. and explain a bit about why Pride Month should be celebrated. For once, there’s no nudity or hypno-content, or even a real punchline… just a small, earnest speech about Pride Month.

It’s no secret that I’m part of the LGBTQ community… I mean, all those comics with Chibi-Dina in graphic lesbian sex scenes should clue you in that I like the ladies… but I ALSO like the guys, and the inbetwixters. I’m also slightly genderqueer, and have called myself “genderfluid” for some time… but after having gone through some of the pride flags for the comic (I only included a select few because there weren’t room for all the flags!), I do wonder if I might classify myself as “genderfaer.”

What’s genderfaer, you ask? Well, it’s a variant om the “genderfae” term, which means you’re genderfluid but only between feminine, agender and non-binary genders and never masculine ones. If you add the R at the end, you get “genderfaer,” which means you CAN experience masculine genders, but never like a fully binary man.

I THINK that’s closest to what I am.

I have mentioned before how for the most part my attitude towards my own gender is “meh, whatever,” with a few (addmittedly infrequent) moments of either gender dysphoria or gender euphoria.Some people have described being genderfluid as a rommercoaster with highs and lows… in my case it’s more like a train ride over a long flat stretch that occasionally and for no reason at all decides to turn into a rollercoaster for a short while before continuing on its long stretch. But it never seems to go QUITE so far as “I’m a man.”

Bigots and haters will laugh at me, call me freak and pervert and worse, but I’ve never been inclined to listen to people like that.

I’ve talked a lot about Project ERYSS as of late, and now I can reveal that the first story in the series, Welcome to Paragon Bay, is done, It’s a one-chapter novelette of about 10 000 words, and will be posted to this site at some point… though it’s already up on my Patreon, if you want to read it now… along with the first attempt at a start of the series, Meet the Alliance (to be revised),

So, Project ERYSS. I’ll write up a more detailed introduction to the world and the story later, but just to give a bit more information:

Project ERYSS is a planned series of short stories, novellas and novelettes (you might call them “light novels”) all set in a world where superheroes and metahumand exist and have been part of human life for centuries.

The main setting is Paragon Bay, a modern island metropolis with.thirteen districts, almost 4 million inabitants, and an untold number of superheroes and -villains. It’s named for one of its founders and greatest heroes, the now-sadly deceased war hero Paragon… though the rest of the world also often call the city “Supervillain Central.” Not completely without reason. Because Paragon Bay is also secretly where you find the main headquarters of the mysterious Project ERYSS….

The stories will be very adult-rated, often feature mind-control, non-con and dub-con, superheroines in erotic peril and other things you shouldn’t show your kids. But hopefully I’ll also manage to have a bit of fun, adventure and character interactions. I can at least promise that I’m not going to have every story a copy-paste of the previous one, and the number of street thugs who effortlessly beat up trained warriors is going to be very low… it’s supposed to be SUPERHEROINES in peril, not completely ineffectual damsels.

Inspired by Astro City, as well as online erotic superhero universes like Metrobay Comix (I like Trishbot’s stories!), there won’t be one main character, or even one set of main characters. Different stories will focus on different characters, and while some chars might only get a single focus story, others wil be recurring.

So far, four stories are either finished or in the works, with more being planned.

• Welcome to Paragon Bay: Jenna Lee Foster still doesn’t know why Rosalynn Westwood, of the multi-billionaire Westwood family, offered her five million dollars to come see her in Paragon Bay… but curiosity, money and the fact that Rosalynn has been her biggest celebrity crush for years, made her brave the trip to the city everyone calls “Supervillain Central.” Of course, it may not have been that good an idea… (Finished,)
  
• Watch the Stone Shine: David is a normal (though not particularly friendly or likeable) store clerk who happens to find a ring with a magic ruby that can turn anyone who looks at it into his mindless hypno-slave… including female cops and superheroines. But will he bite off more than he can chew? (About 70% done.)
  
• Sage to Seraphim (working title): Seraphim, Paragon Bay’s oldest and most admired superheroine, looks back on her past, inclucing her history with the evil Lord Waric, Kaldor the barbarian hero, and Paragon, the war hero and co-founder of Paragon Bay. (In planning.)
  
• Meet the Alliance: A college student vanishes from her dorm room without a trace. The newly formed Alliance of Super Chicks, led by Ermine (the White Vigilante of Blackstone), have a mystery on their hands. (Under revision.)

Just a quick heads-up that there’s new instalments in both the Cavalcades of Lady Vidia: The Chosen One Cavalcade has a new pic that was a Patreon request, and the Disney Cavalcade has a Snow White-themed pic. The Snow White themed pic also features a cameo from a character named Ethereal, who is part of my upcoming erotic superhero project, Project Eryss.

And speaking of: I’m about half done writing Watch The Stone Shine, a novelette set in the Project Eryss setting and featuring a couple of the characters. It’s a bit of an experiment for me, since it’s a parody of some of those “errotic superhero stories” out there… you know, with some unlikeable main character who defeats seasoned superheroes and the narrative tone is “bitch deserved it.” I wanted to try my own take on that, complete with the kind of ending I think such stories SHOULD have.

It’s the first time I’m trying to write a main character that’s deliberately unlikeable… I mean, some of my chars definitely have unlikeable traits; Lady Vidia can be rather creepy and obnoxious, for one, but I’m sort of hoping she has enough charm that she’s engaging and likeable on some level. The MC of Watch the Stone Shine is supposed to come across as extremely selfish, self-centered and entitled… I’m just hoping that people reading the story start thinking “yeah, that’s just like me!”

I’m not 100% sure how I’ll release Watch the Stone Shine to the public yet… but I’ll begin posting the chapters on my Patreon before too long… in case you’re interested. There’s some other Patreon-exclusive stories, including a short story set in the world of Holly Potter and the Witching World, a silly little Sabrina the Teenage Witch fanfic, and the start of Project Eryss.

Patreons also get access to my Discord server, and first look at pretty much any artwork I make. In case you’re interested.

You might notice that the site menu’s slightly different from what it was. It has mostly to do with my earlier hints that I’d do a slight re-focus with this site… when I first started up, I mainly wanted to have a place where I could post all my NSFW artwork, after the Great NSFW Ban on Tumblr. But things have changed a little since then. I have several other places to share artwork… Twitter, Discord and Mastodon, yes, but I’m also experimenting with sites like Pixiv. Pixelfed and Pillowfort… and it’s only now I realize that all those sides have names that begin with P. I wonder if that means anything…?

Um. Anyway. For ages now, this site’s main focus has been the comics and the writings… the blog, mostly, but also other writings. The single-drawing artworks don’t get a lot of focus; I haven’t even uploaded any single-drawing artworks to the site for a while, even if I had. Partly it’s because the art galleries that are available with WordPress and Elementor (which is what I use to power the site) SUCK. Either it’s a hassle to upload, or the gallery looks terrible. So the two art gallery pages have sort of been neglected.

If you check the pages now, you’ll see that the galleries have been restructured. I’m still not perfectly happy with how it turned out, and I’m looking for a better solution… but in the meantime, you’ll notice that the “comics” and “writings” pages are placed before the art galleries on the site menu… just to illustrate that these sections are probably the more important ones.

I realize that my website isn’t professional… I”m the only one running it and I don’t know beans about coding so I’ve had to make some compromises. But I’m always working to make it a better experience!

Oh, and I’ve made a blog post about April O’Neil. Mostly because I was making a hypno-stasis drawing of various April O’ Neil incarnations, and I had a lot to say about that drawing, why I wanted to do it, and why I think the outcry about April’s design in the upcoming TMNT movie is silly. You can read it all, and see the drawing in its glory, here.