We Got up Early, Washed Our Faces, Walked the Fields and Got in the Turtle

You have to push creativity. Cosplaying is all well and good and very impressive in some instances, but you can always do more. This picture is from this very cool album. It starts off with the Part 5 characters in a band. I do like the image of Abbacchio with a saxophone, but the second half tells the progression of Part 5 done just with pictures of the Passione gang sitting around a card table in a gazebo. It’s well done even in the photography and the way the pictures become bleaker towards the end. Being set to PJ Harvey’s “In the Dark Places” from the Let England Shake album helps even it it does have the tritest Linkin Park lyrics pasted around the band pictures in the beginning. And there’s a fun bonus all the way at the end, so have some fun with it.

(Thanks to the post from konatsu612 Tumblr)

I Got Socks for Christmas… And They are Fabulous! JoJo January Call to Artists!

JoJo’s fandom is often the best, so any event that brings the fandom’s works to the forefront is worthy of support. There’s one in question on Tumblr that’s still struggling to get its feet called JoJo January. The mission statement of this little celebration is pretty straightforward. Directly quoted:

During the course of January, I want artists to submit JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure related art they’ve done. (emphasis on the fact that it’s art you’ve done, no submitting other people’s stuff, if I find out you’re stealing work I’ll flip my shit)
The work can be fan-art of your favorite characters, cross-overs with other fandoms, or original characters/stands. Anything goes in JoJo January! Use any kind of mediums, etc.

If this is successful and if you guys want, I will attempt to make a zine with some of the work to promote my fellow artists. I’ll make a post towards the end of January asking people who participate to let me know if they want in on the zine or not.

On top of being a good way to show your love of the series, it’s also an opportunity to show your chops as an artist. This fandom and artist share in common that more exposure is always a good thing, so if you’ve got an idea for a JoJo’s art project, consider submitting here to make another fandom celebration a big one.

You can submit any works you’d like to here.

You Guys Did Good Finding an Entire Colored Chapter

It’s interesting to see this of all things in color. When this is just Araki’s pen and pencil scratches, it looks so loose as though he banged it out in a few minutes with his non-dominant hand, though that’s not a bad thing. In color, it somewhat looks like that, but far more solid.

This comes from Vorked having finished off the commission for a color “Shigechi’s Harvest 1” chapter. It’s now a full color chapter just as good as before. This time, he went a little outside the ASB colors and made Fatty’s spikes more obviously blonde. I kinda like the idea, but I don’t know if I like it better or not than him just having a spiky skull. It was the first time I ever noticed that he has a scythe design sewn into his sleeve, so it’s good either way.

You can see pages 1-10 here, pages 11-15 here, and pages 16-20 here. That last post comes with an invitation to request other coloring projects, so consider it if there’s something you’d like to see get this treatment.

COLOR INK. FOUND IT. HEE HEE HEE

Really nice coloring, isn’t it? When I saw this, my first thoughts were, “Wow. I didn’t know they were even doing a special color edition of Part 4. Must be part of Shonen Jump Remix or something.” It’s fair to think that but totally wrong. This is actually a fan work done by Vorked Tumblr, and it’s good. I mean, just look at this:

The colors seem to be using ASB designs as reference, and I like that because I’m used to it at this point. It looks excellent though. Some of the shots look like they were pulled from those Part 4 themed commercials for JoJoveller, and I love how effective the detail is on the smaller parts of color like the “BILLION” on Okuyasu’s arm.  

This color set is only done up to the first ten pages with the next ten pages on the way. You can read the rest of the pages on Vorked Tumblr, and please do support this project so it can keep going.

Bringing You All the Greatest Beats from the Stardust, Diamond, and Today! 104.5 JOJO.FM

Someone started a very cool Tumblr. JoJo’s is rife with musical references, and I know more than a few fans have been turned onto new bands just because of that. How many times have you plumbed your way through search results and YouTube trying to find the song someone or their stand is named after? Well, now you may not have to go looking so hard. JOJO.FM, a repository for and guide to all the JoJo’s musical reference songs you could want. Six songs a page and a nice archive, each character portrait has the song they’re named after streaming. In the case the character/stand is named after an album, like Gold Experience, or a band, like Red Hot Chili Pepper, the song will be one from that album or just any song by the band.

You can check the reference list for character/band, album and song tags on their ETC page and make requests on their Ask page. They’ll be filled in a week. Kick back and listen to some good music.

You Might Think it’s Useless, but I Like Having Somewhere to Rest My Head

A little bit ago, a designer going by DebonairBear made this trendy Ultimate Cars design for Society6. It’s primarily meant as a throw pillow cover and fits a throw pillow 16″ x 16″. You can also get the design as an iPhone/iPod skin, a normal print, a canvas print, a framed print, or a stationary card all for various prices, but I mostly like it as a throw pillow. A lot of people try to have conversation pieces in their homes for guests to talk about. Imagine having a largely naked bird man their for them to rest against on your couch just waiting to start a story of super vampires and volcanic eruptions to space. All the products run for varying prices depending on what they are. The canvas is the most expensive at $85, and the cards are the least expensive at $12 for 3 copies. The pillow itself is $20.

The same designer also has this very nice Gyro design. Other than the throw pillow, it comes as everything the Cars design comes as plus as a t-shirt, tank top, and tote bag. If you’ve got some cash, considering picking one of these up to uncover a fan you never knew or jump start a whole new one.

Everybody Fanfiction! The JoJo’s Big/Reverse Bang

All right, enough just praising fanworks. It’s time to participate.

A community has sprung up on Dreamwidth for a JoJo’s Big Bang or a Reverse Bang. A Bang of either type is a massive movement of fan works of both writing and art. In a Big Bang, writers write some form of fan fiction and then artists come in and draw something based on those stories. In a Reverse Bang, artists draw a piece of fan art and writers have to write a full story based on it. The idea is to bring together the fan community in a huge showing of creative and affectionate energy for the thing we can all get behind.

Which group goes first, authors or artists, is determined by vote. If you have a preference to what you’d like to see happen first, go to this page and post your preference. As it stands, it’s pretty strongly showing artists as going first. I voted for that because while it severely limits my chances of writing a buddy cop story while Josuke and Okuyasu are hard-boiled, from the streets detectives trying to bust an underground vampire trade racket, it’ll probably be easier if I have a concrete starting point with a picture.

And yes, you’ve read that right. I’ve already joined up in this community and will offer my position as a writer. Whoever ends up going first, I’ll try to inspire the artists or transform their piece into a story with whatever meager skill I can muster, and you guys should too. I’m going to write because I can’t draw. If I could, this blog would be 5% news and 900% drawings of the main villains at a bar talking about their days, but I can’t, so want to see what you guys can do. And if you can write, that’s cool too. As the guy who started this said himself,

“The more people we have, the more successful this will be, and the more diverse and wonderful fan works we will get!”

So wrack your brain and get to fanworking.

Oh, also, the community is still very small, so if you want to embellish it with graphics or web design, they’re also looking for that. I can do some CSS, but as I said, I’m no artist. There’s creative roads for everyone here, so grab a keyboard, grab a pencil, grab whatever you need to work and get going!

 

“How Inauspicious. You’ve Drawn the Inverted Hol Horse.”

These come from a magical little Tumblr called Lenoraoraora. I couldn’t be happier. I’ve always wanted there to be a Stardust Crusaders themed Major Arcana Tarot deck, but have never had the artistic ability to make it happen or known anyone who would. So when this lady comes along and not only posts those but says,

You’d be right in your assumption, yes! Every character from Stardust Crusaders whose stand is based on the tarot, I’ll be designing a card for them. I’m thinking of making each suit of the minor arcana themed around groups of characters (that may or may not be in SC), i.e. Joestars for Pentacles, villains for Swords. That kind of thing. 🙂

I’m pretty happy. Go. Reblog, repost, get the word out however, support this project. The day may come when we can look intensely at someone while coldly chuckling as they stare into a picture of an upside-down orangutang on an ocean liner.

(Thanks to JoJo’s Tumblr for being that chainlink for me.)

ED 1 + ED 2 = Yes Music Video

“New York JoJo” is out and subbed by at least two groups that I’ve been able to find. Joseph is as awesome as you’d expect, the acting and color and style are all still good, but the biggest creative jump I’ve seen is in the new ending animation. It starts with end of the ending animation for Phantom Blood, the Stone Mask in a pool of blood, exploding. It’s easier to see when you look at it like this.

(Thanks to SA user Chibs for finding this)

It’s it cool. It keeps up with the same style as the first and still sets us up with Battle Tendency being it’s own thing. It’s almost like JoJo’s has a theme. A theme of being totally awesome and having some really spirited fans. Knowing how this works, another two or three fanworks should pop up now that I’ve brought this up. Keep it coming, it’s all be great so far.

My Hero is Dio Brando. He’s the Best in JoJo’s Kart 64

Stop whatever you’re doing. This is adorable.

This is too cute. Like I said, JoJo’s fanworks come out of the woodwork pretty easily now that we’ve got the anime, so I’m not sure how old this is or who did it. Whoever you are, you get all the internet points because that is the sort of thing I fangirl out over.

“But cuteness isn’t what JoJo’s is about,” you say. “It’s about manly men in dangerous competitive cart races with power-ups and Speedwagon as the race announcer.” Ok, maybe you didn’t say that part, but Millio of Orion’s Belt Tumbler did.

Also doesn’t slip on wet ground.

The driver is a Dio exclusive projectile weapon.

Were this made, I’d make Giorno spin out as much as possible just to see raccoons scurry from underneath his car every time.

The “Baby Dodging” stat is also maxed out.

I don’t know if Dio or the car’s engine is going “Muda muda”

To quote the Tumblr, “Polnareff would be a judge also because he’s got reff in his name.”

So you see that CyberConnect2? I expect this as an unlockable bonus game for beating all the All-Star Battle Story Modes. You can even use the same character models and have Wham up there race in his chariot from his fight with Joseph. I wonder how Polnareff-eree would feel about a Chariot racer?