Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Coin-Operated Press FurZine issue is out!

Coin-Operated Press FurZine issue is out!
https://coinoperatedpress.bigcartel.com/
FurZine is 20+ pages of Furry art, photos, poetry & prose! 
My short story, “Fall Season” & 2 of my illustrations from my ongoing cat sword & sorcery series!

[Print] 
FurZine - £6.00 - £7.00
https://coinoperatedpress.bigcartel.com/product/furzine-1 

[Digital] 
PDF - FurZine - £3.00  
https://coinoperatedpress.bigcartel.com/product/pdf-furzine

Thursday, September 12, 2024

New cat story accepted!

Just in time for autumnal antics, my short story, "Fall Season"(& 2 art pieces), was accepted and will appear in the FurZine anthology! As it's a Scottish press, this will be my first overseas publication!

https://bsky.app/profile/coinoppress.bsky.social (Bluesky)

@CoinOpPress (Twitter)

Saturday, September 7, 2024

Why is there a growing movement among creatives against Generative AI?

I really don't understand how dismissive some creatives are about the advent of AI. 

First, it isn't ALL of what AI represents why many creatives hate it, it is Generative AI. This is a kind of AI that gleans from existing IPs (Intellectual Properties) to make its "own" art. 

Basically, it has to "steal" in order to learn. When it plagiarizes, and because it's AI, it can steal from millions upon millions of creative works from all sorts of media and use it. 

What does this mean? It means that through a kind of piracy, creators and creatives lose out. AI artists are not the same as Generative AI. There is still a human using it as a tool. But Gen AI works alone, and steals from others to create. 

There is a global pledge growing with creatives both past and present who are signing on that they don't want the companies who use Generative AI to use their works. That means living creators are being pirated and dead creators' estates are being robbed. Also, Gen AI already steals from professionals, so what's it doing to the mid-level pros and smaller freelancers that it's supposed to help?

Companies, corporations, and other businesses that can hire artists, even digital and AI artists, are NOT HIRING THOSE ARTISTS. 

I mean, why pay someone or someone's estate for Intellectual properties when you can simply use the art your Gen AI can steal? 

Please listen to the actual complaints of living artists (even those who work with AI) and creator estates when they tell you that they are losing work because of Generative AI. 

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Thank (G)o(od)ness, It's Friday TV!

For those who know me well, I love music, show tunes, musicals, commercial jingles, and especially, theme songs. And nothing tickles me more than a good theme song and/or theme music...

Back in the very late 80s to 90s, there was a programming started on Friday evenings called TGIF, or, Thank God/Goodness It's Friday. These shows were family-friendly sitcoms in a variety of genres and circumstances. 

But what made these TV shows stand out were their opening jingles/themes. It doesn't matter what part of the house one was in, if your TV was up high or could be heard, and one of those opening themes came on, you knew exactly which show was coming on! 

Perfect Strangers
Full House
Step by Step
Family Matters


Monday, June 24, 2024

Comic strips before Comic books

Happy Pride Month and Happy Caribbean-American Heritage Month!

Rethinking my early influences as I create this webcomic: 
Peanuts
Beetle Bailey
Blondie 
Bringing Up Father
Hagar the Horrible
Andy Capp
Family Circus
Little Orphan Annie
Curtis
Calvin and Hobbes
Jumpstart
Boondocks 
Brenda Starr
Rex Morgan, MD
Pogo
Doonesbury
Where I'm Coming From

This list will continue...

Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Representation is a gift

When I began SUMMER TO WINTER, I noticed more than one brown or Black reader and/or friend asked if (Peter) Dunlop is Black. 

The relief and joy in their faces, or in their voices, or text messages become even more so when they see other Black characters of varying cultural backgrounds, on my Instagram page. 

And there is an unexplainable reaction when my readers realize even the white characters' cultural backgrounds are also explained.

Saturday, March 9, 2024

What To Expect With My Main Couple...

Yanina and Peter are an interracial couple. 

She is white and first/second-generation Eastern-European American. 

He is Black and multiple-generation African-American and Caribbean-American.

Yanina is from working-to-middle-class people. Her family began late in the 20th century to arrive in the US from political upheaval in Eastern Europe. Elders worked in factories and mills in the new country to eventually starting their own businesses and branching out on a whole in different fields. They still remember their Eastern-European roots by frequenting other Eastern-European cultural businesses, eateries, as well as creating opportunities within their communities.

Peter is from upper-class people. His family is Old Money. Between ancestors buying loved ones early to live in small enclaves, outsmarting the system, investing amongst themselves and in the broader American scale, helping other Black people to build larger communities as well as intermarrying monied West Indians and wealthy Africans, his family's different branches are at varying levels of wealth.

~  ~  ~  ~

I have established that Yanina grows up in a lower-middle income neighborhood. She is also around different ethnic groups. Her friendship circle has been diverse.

One thing I wanted to establish is when Yanina and Peter are dating, that he IS NOT the first Black person she has interacted with! Though I'm a sucker for interracial romance, I can't stand that trope, and it is usually with a white person dating outside, that this is the first encounter of the 'other' when they end up in a romantic relationship!

Now, I understand certain cultures discourage inter-dating, and even dating on a whole. Those are exceptions. What I will not tolerate in the stories I enjoy is when the white (or any other race/ethnicity) character is inter-dating someone and they have NEVER interacted with those people beforehand! Especially when the character lives in a multicultural community!

I can understand if you've never dated an Eastern-European, but, depending on where you live, I'm sure you've gone to school with/bought from/or even been assisted in a medical office by someone who is Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, or Russian. 

You don't know how annoyed I get when, in most comedy shows, the white character dates someone outside their race, and they say "I have never interacted with someone like you before!" No no no no no no NO. 

Though Yanina dating Peter is dating a Black person for the first time, it is NOT her first time being around Black people. She's had Black schoolmates, she has Black friends (NOT 1. Or 2. Or 3. She has MANY). She's had Black teachers, and, as an adult, has Black coworkers. She also is an aspiring spoken word poet and looks up to many poets, not all of them white, and her mentors are Black and from other ethnicities as well.

As I said before, there are always exceptions and valid excuses, but it gets annoying when there are obviously other folks in these characters' worlds and they only interact with them when they're dating or in a romantic relationship with them? 

So, my question to those other stories: if that couple breaks up, does the character NEVER EVER INTERACT with that group again? 

Makes no sense! Especially when one lives in communities that are often than not, diverse.

Thank you for allowing me to rant, dear readers and we will see each other again!

Coin-Operated Press FurZine issue is out!

Coin-Operated Press FurZine issue is out! https://coinoperatedpress.bigcartel.com/ FurZine is 20+ pages of Furry art, photos, poetry & p...