Things make more sense in my head

Tanuki Pug commission for yokai.parade (aka wombatarama). It took a while to finish but it was worth it!

You can get your own commission from me by going to Ko-fi.com/cattype. A full color commission like this for $20 or a little post-it note doodle for only $3.

You can also buy items with my designs on them such as shirts, notebooks, bags, duets etc. from Cattype.Threadless.com 

In case you’re wondering, the pattern used for the background is some origami paper I scanned and messed with in Photoshop.

I wanted to make a comic for International Asexual Day but I thought it was the 16 and not the 6th. orz

There's some stories that I keep meaning to make into comics for Ace Week or Pride Month but I keep putting it off or chickening out. They're stories that involve a lot of cringe and a lot of misunderstanding so they're hard to talk about. I practice retelling them to myself to better understand them and find the easiest way to tell them but the scars still run deep.

So for now, I just wanna share some of the morals of my stories without the stories.

-If you're struggling to find a "missing part of you" then maybe that part wasn't meant to be there in the first place.

-Some people are just preconditioned to interpret things as sexual or romantic even when you explain why they aren't.

-Don't take advice on your sexuality from people who don't think your sexuality exists.

-Just because you've finally convinced someone that you're not straight, doesn't mean they've totally grasped the concept of asexuality. Some things take time to sink in.

-There are people who might react badly to your sexuality. Often it's uncomfortable, in some cases it might be violent. But just because something MIGHT happen doesn't mean it WILL happen. You can't base the way you live your life on a maybe. You don't need to be scared.

-If someone doesn't believe asexuality exists or thinks they can "fix" you, then that's THEIR character flaw, not YOUR problem. You have a right to exist and be yourself.

-We're lucky enough to be living in a time when asexuality is becoming more accepted and better known. Things could be better but they're still getting better. Hell! Do you have any idea how lucky you are just to be reading posts like this? I'm talking to YOU tweenager who's just figuring themself out!!

Bonus: This is purely my personal experience so I can't guarantee you'll have the same luck as me. Almost all the times I've come out to someone I've known IRL it's been awful but with one exception all the times I've talked about my asexuality online have been positive. Not only that but apparently half the people I've known online have been asexual. Maybe it's because everyone I've met IRL I've only met through happenstance i.e. I only knew them because we were in the same class. The asexual internet friends are a little harder to explain but it might just because younger people are more open to more options. It's not just "gay or straight" any more. Kids can go online and say "oh, asexuality is a thing? I think I might be asexual" (Again, you kids have NO idea how lucky you are! I only had an alternative lifestyles story on 20/20 that I saw one time as a kid that I mostly forgot about!)

Now treat yourself to some cake.

I got the idea to for a comic based on the idiom "fell off the ball" meaning "I lost track of what I should be doing" but then I googled it and only found a golf term. Googling "fell off the ball idiom" redirects to "Drop the ball".

I really need a comic for my Patreon newsletter within a week. Has anyone heard this used as an idiom? How many alternatives can you think of?

I dug up an old drawing of Miki I drew in 2009 and remade it in Procreate. I was just going to clean it up and add some flat colors but then I thought “I bet I could make a quick and easy background with the star and nebula brushes” and then it turned into this mad experiment with textures and layer properties.

I’ve been meaning to start making time lapse videos of my art for Instagram and TikTok but for now I’ve decided to post an unedited version publicly on my Patreon. I go into the reasons why in the post.

I wrote this script with the intention of maybe turning it into a comic eventually but I think it works well enough in text form. Also, with Valmont’s original voice Julian Sands missing on Mt. Baldy I felt the need to put some Valmont content out there sooner than later.

This scene takes place during the season 1 episode The Jade Monkey.

Valmont’s office. Valmont is holding a magazine on current events over his head for Shendu to read.

Shendu: You may turn the page now, Valmont.

Valmont: Couldn’t you just summon your Shadowkhan to do this?

Shendu: …No.

Valmont: *annoyed sigh*

The laptop on Valmont’s beeps. Valmont puts the magazine aside and taps a button to answer the call. Finn appears on the screen. The rest of the enforcers are just out of view.

Finn: Hey Big V, guess what! We got the monkey talisman! Also, what’s your favorite meat dish?

Valmont: Well that’s an odd request. [He thinks for a moment] Hmm. Well, my friend Karl did turn me onto turducken.

Finn: …that’s a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in turkey, right?

Valmont: Yes.

[Finn pauses then turns to the other enforcers]

Finn: Guys, I think we’re gonna need two other people for this.

Chow: [off screen] Well, we already have his niece… I think

Monkey: [off screen] Eck eck!

Valmont: Pardon me?

Finn: We caught Jackie Chan and we were thinking of turning him into something we could eat.

Valmont: PARDON ME?

Tohru: [off screen] I’m starting to regret suggesting this.

Shendu: If anyone is going to be eating this Jackie Chan it should be me! He will be my first meal upon regaining my true form! Until then you may keep him captive in the form of some weak and vile creature such as a rat. 

Ratso: [mumbling off screen] Rats aren’t that bad.

Valmont: What is this conversation? What is happening?

[Finn is distracted by the return of Jade]

Finn: Uh, hang on a sec, Big V!

[Finn drops his communicator on the ground giving Shendu and Valmont an ant’s eye view of the transformation shenanigans but mostly all they can see are a bunch of animal feet running back and forth. Valmont stares at the monitor perplexedly as we hear bits of dialogue from the episode and animal cries]

Valmont: …I don’t know what I’m looking at.

Shendu: The monkey talisman yields the power of animal transformation.

Valmont: I see. For a second there I thought it might be the cannibal talisman. 

Shendu: That is but one of its many uses.

Valmont: …I’m just going to leave that there.

[They continue bemusedly watching the laptop quietly as the animal sounds and episode dialogue continues.]

Valmont: …Can’t you send your Shadowkhan to help them?

Shendu: I would but unfortunately they’d be just as susceptible to this madness.

Valmont: I see.

[They continue watching. Then they start getting annoyed]

Shendu: Has it not occurred to any of them to turn Chan into some helpless invertebrate?

Valmont: I was JUST thinking the same thing!

Shendu: Turn him into a slug, you fools!

Shendu and Valmont: [repeatedly yelling at the screen in frustration] A slug!/Turn him into a slug!/Sluuug!

Valmont: Or a jellyfish!

Shendu: Even better!

Shendu and Valmont: [repeatedly yelling at the screen in frustration] Jellyfiiiish!/Turn them into a jellyfiiish!/A jellyfish you fools!

[Their yelling peters off as the screen goes quiet.]

Shendu: It would seem they've been chased off by monkeys.

Valmont: They better not get killed I've had far too many men quit on me already and I can't afford to hire anyone else.

I’ve started doing monthly newsletters on my Patreon to let people know what art I’ve been making and if anything is preventing me from making art. Today, in a desperate attempt to get more than 4 patrons, I made an image to go with my tweet about it. I’m hoping you’ll be curious enough about what you see here to donate at least a dollar a month to me. $10 if you’re an especially kind person. $20 if you want me to draw something for you.

And now here’s some hashtags that relate directly to this image:

#juliansands (That’s him in the corner. I’ve actually been doing some writing about him. In the newsletter I talk about possibly writing more.) #juliansandsmissing (The thing that inspired me to write about him) #valmont #jackiechanadventures #fanart #papermache ( Ooooh, don’tcha wanna know what this weird sausage wreath could be? :3c ) #toshidensetsu #japaneseurbanlegend #hasshakusama #kuchisakeonna #kuchisake #toirenohanakosan #hanakosan #teketeke #jinmenken #manfaceddog #ghoststoriesanime #maya #amanojaku (This one has to do with a tumblr I’ve been sitting on for a while) #cattype (the cat girl is me)

And here’s some hashtags that relate to the post:

#OC #baku #bergamot #amabie #shendu

https://www.instagram.com/p/CpZwc_vOmy0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

I wonder if the casting of Julian Sands at all inspired the character design for Valmont. One of Julian’s best know roles (after George Emerson in A Room with a View) was the titular warlock in Warlock who also sports a blonde ponytail. They also have a similar icy glare. 

It could just be coincidence but it’s still interesting to think about. Especially since Valmont technically getting demon powers in the second season was likely planned early on.

Oh, and speaking of Julian Sands and Jackie Chan’s adventures, here’s a fun fact!

Julian Sands got to meet the real Jackie Chan when he visited the recording studio where JCA was being recorded. After that Real Jackie cast him as Snakehead,  the villain in The Medallion. 

I can't confirm if Real Jackie visited the studio specifically to scout Julian for The Medallion or if it’s just coincidence but I like to image him chatting to Julian about Warlock and being like, “So I hear you have experience flying around on wires”

Julian Sands- the original voice of Valmont in Jackie Chan Adventures- has been missing in the San Gabriel Mountains in California since January 13, 2023. The search has been hindered by bad weather but he’s a skilled mountaineer so there’s still a chance he’s hanging in there... alone… in the freezing cold… for a month… 

The above tweet is my reaction when I got the news. I didn’t have the space to fit it in but that interest I mentioned started about a year back. Since then I’ve been entertaining myself by learning about him by listening to interviews and convention panels. And of course watching some of his movies and TV appearances.

Something I’ve observed from his filmography is career trajectory. He started his acting career thinking he would only be a stage actor but ended up stumbling into Hollywood with two Oscar movies, The Killing Fields and A Room with a View. After that he did the movie he’s best known for amongst horror fans, Warlock because he was tired of- to slightly paraphrase what he called them in one podcast- ‘insipid romantic leads that felt more and more like chocolate box commercials’ that he had been offered after the success of A Room with a View. After that he did Warlock 2: The Armageddon out of contractual obligation but turned down Warlock 3 because the script didn’t interest him.

And that line of thinking has colored much of his career choices. He didn’t chose movies based on what paid more or what would gain him more fame, he did whatever interested him. He chose characters that were fun to play, people he wanted to work with and places he wanted to go. Because of that he’s played a wide range of characters in a wide range of movies. From general crowd pleasers, to niche genre flicks, to experimental and avant-garde weirdness. He’s worked with directors like David Cronenberg, Ken Russell, Dario Argento, and Mike Figgis. 

But those choices are probably why his star has faded so much over time. If you look at his IMDB you might notice that he’s gone from being one of the biggest faces on the poster to not even having his name on it. Most insultingly, one of the posters for A Crooked House has the whole ensemble except him. I haven’t seen it since it’s not on Netflix anymore but he seems like he should be a major character. His name’s in the trailer but apparently they didn’t see his face worth squeezing onto the poster.

Even the two movies he’s best known for have fallen into obscurity. Despite being nominated for various oscars that year including best picture, I’ve only talked to one person who knew what A Room With a View was. And Warlock seems to be a B-movie amongst B-movies.

If he died of some illness and didn’t get a ton of coverage aside from a few websites, I wouldn’t have liked it but it wouldn’t have surprised me. But the fact that he went missing complicates things. I first found out about his disappearance on MSNBC and I’ve since wondered if he got that level of coverage not so much because he was a famous actor who went missing as much as he was a missing hiker who happened to be a famous actor. And I find myself wondering not only if he’s alive or dead but how he’ll be reported on when he’s found. If he’s dead and it doesn’t get at least the same amount of coverage as his disappearance I’ll be pissed. If he’s alive and it doesn’t get the same amount of coverage I’ll be even more pissed and also extremely baffled because “65 year old actor survives for a month on a snowy mountain” is great headline!

Some people say the ultimate death is when someone says your name for the last time. Whether Julian is alive or dead or found or not he deserves to be remembered. Go to his wiki or his IMDB and look up the stuff he was in. Watch A Room With a View. Watch Warlock. Watch Jackie Chan Adventures. Watch Stephen King’s Rose Red. Watch The Room (the one with Donald Pleasence, not Tommy Wiseau). Watch Hotel. Watch Naked Lunch. Watch The Medallion. Watch The Painted Bird. Watch Borley Rectory. Watch The Ghosts of Borley Rectory. Watch The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Watch Boxing Helena. Watch Timecode. Watch The Tomorrow Man. Watch Vibes. Watch A Tale of a Vampire. Watch Seneca - On the Creation of Earthquakes. Watch Arachnophobia. Watch Gothic. Watch Witch Hunt. Watch The Escape. Watch his public readings of the poetry of Percy Shelly, John Keats, and Harold Pinter. Watch anything you see that catches your fancy. There’s sure to be something there for you or maybe you’ll discover something new to you that you wouldn’t watch otherwise. 

Living people need to be remembered as much as the dead.

This stuff’s been floating in my head for the past month and I just wanted to say it. Maybe I could said it better. Maybe there’s more I could say. But this will have to do.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

Bird site sucks now so I got an ancient elephant account. I was going to wait a while longer to see if a site emerged as Twitter’s replacement (ie the one whose icon appears on business cards and advertisements) but then I found out that Twitter was actually *censoring* links to Mastodon and other social media sites. So I thought “If Stank Butt is afraid enough of Mastodon to censor links to it, then that’s the best reason to get a Mastodon account.” I made this picture to be my header since I obviously can’t tweet the link. Starting an account on a new site is always rough so I hope you’ll join me there. I’m also Mastodon.social/@cattype. I actually didn’t know there was a difference until @samkalensky told me. I may or may not use it for non-art related opinions. We’ll see how this all goes. #mastodon #mastoart #cattype #twitter #myart #sabertooth https://www.instagram.com/p/CmcvpplvraZ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

My family made pine cone turkeys for Thanksgiving. This is mine. Most I’ve ever worked with hot glue. I usually perfer to use Elmer’s but I may have finally warmed up to it… ehrm, so to speak. 🦃 #turkey #thanksgiving #pinecone #crafts #artsandcrafts https://www.instagram.com/p/ClcX3SIvllQ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

The ghost with no legs! From the #yokaitober list, it’s Teke Teke! Teke Teke is named for the sound she makes as she runs on her hands. The closest thing English has to that sound might be “pitter patter” which is way too cute a name for a monster name and probably the reason we don't name monsters after sound effects here. #apencilyokaiaday #AYokaiADay #yokai #instaart #pencil #pencildrawing #teketeke #urbanlegend #japaneseurbanlegend https://www.instagram.com/p/CkZZ5VjPlfy/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

So many eyes! From the #yokaitober list it’s Dodomeki! It’s not part of the lore but I’ve had this idea for a while that if you want to see ghosts and stuff you can trade your eyes with the Dodomeki. She certainly has plenty to spare. Didn’t use the background I’ve been using for my other #AYokaiADay posts because I didn’t feel it was necessary to cut this one up. #apencilyokaiaday #AYokaiADay #yokai #instaart #pencil #pencildrawing #dodomeki #manyeyes #Ommetaphobia https://www.instagram.com/p/CkQDtF0uZ-N/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

A tragic fairy tale! From the #yokaitober list, it’s Tsuru Nyobo. The Crane Wife!

I haven’t seen this story get counted amongst yokai much but I have seen it in many collections of fairy tales from around the world. I’d like to think that she’s fairly well known because of that but then again, when people think of fairly tales they rarely seem to think of anything besides the Brothers Grimm.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CkNKHD4LKN5/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Buddhist bird men! From the #uncannytober list, it’s the Karasu Tengu! I love tengu! Tengu are one of my favorite yokai! …I am terrible at drawing them. Unfortunately for me, the prompt specified KARASU tengu. Long noses are much easier to draw than beaks. #apencilyokaiaday #AYokaiADay #yokaitober #yokai #instaart #pencil #pencildrawing #tengu #karasutengu https://www.instagram.com/p/CkKuKgquR29/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

version is “urban legend”. A Call from Mary-San is the story of a doll named Mary that stalks the young girl who left her behind after a move. One day the young girl gets a call out of the blue that says, “I’m Mary! I’m at the old house!” then hangs up. In the time it takes for the girl to think “what was that about?” she gets another call. “I’m Mary! I’m at the corner store!” And it hangs up again. The story continues like this. Again the girl is baffled and again she gets another call. And again it’s someone claiming to be Mary at a new location. Then they hang up then call again after only a few seconds from a new location. As the calls continue, the girl notices that the locations are landmarks between her old house and new house. Each one getting closer and closer until finally… “I’m Mary. I’m right behind you.” To learn more I recommend looking up the video about her by @TaraaDevlin on YouTube. She also has a series of books on Japanese Urban Legends called Toshiden you can buy. #apencilyokaiaday #AYokaiADay #yokaitober #yokai #instaart #pencil #pencildrawing #marysan #creepydoll #haunteddoll #spooky #urbanlegend #japaneseurbanlegend https://www.instagram.com/p/CkH0mvnL1re/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=