Im Gonna Be Honest, I Like The Star Wars Expanded Universe As Much As The Next Person, But Honestly I

I’m gonna be honest, I like the Star Wars Expanded universe as much as the next person, but honestly I enjoyed it a lot more once I realised it’s not all worth it.

(a third evil Shaak Ti Knockoff? Well’s running a bit dry there, huh?)

Don’t get me wrong, there’s good stuff in there (I have a particular fondness for some of the Han Solo Novels), but there’s a lot of schlock too. It’s a big universe and they can’t all be winners.

Once upon a time, I felt like it was a reasonable goal to read all the Star Wars tie-in comics, they only came out like 3-4 per week, they're just 23 pages, it's totally doable! But I have realized, no, I just fundamentally do not care about certain sets of characters or parts of the Star Wars galaxy. "You could still do it for completion's sake!" my brain keeps whispering in a coaxing voice. "You could look for fun little gems like 'swearing in the gffa' that way! Just 3-4 comics a week, that's easy to get done!" And I have to tell that voice to shut up, because that half hour or 45 minutes I spend reading those comics and roving my eye over the panels to see if there's anything funny in the background might not be a lot of time, but I could be spending that time every week watching a TV show I liked or reading a fic I liked. And most importantly I am freeing myself of this prison. COMPLETIONISM IS A PRISON. IT IS ONLY FUN IF YOU ACTUALLY LIKE ALL THAT STUFF. COMPLETING IT JUST TO COMPLETE IT DOES NOT ACTUALLY MAKE YOUR BRAIN HAPPY THERE IS NO SATISFYING "I SCRATCHED THIS ITCH" FEELING AT THE END OF IT. IT IS LIES. IT ONLY ENDS IN EXHAUSTION AND "WHY DID I THINK THIS WAS WORTH IT?" FREE YOURSELF OF COMPLETIONISM FOR COMPLETIONISM'S SAKE NOW.

Minas Tirith (Roger Garland)

Finalists of the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Dispute by Jacek Stankiewicz from Kraków, Poland: 'I caught this scene while watching birds in the Bialowieza Forest. Young greenfinch was still fed by parents. However, from time to time birds looked like having argument. My friends interpret this scene in two ways: A young naughty kid is arguing with a parent. Or one kid is reporting to the parent that its brother did something wrong: "Look he has broken the glass in the window"'

'Excuse me sir but I think you're a little too young to be smoking' by Dakota Vaccaro from Victor, United States: 'While I was working deep in the Virginian woods, a family of grey foxes took up residence under the deck of the abandoned cottage next to my work housing. One day while practicing their hunting skills on bits of moss and branches, one of the kits lunged at a small chunk of wood and started rolling around with his prize. Tired after his hunt the kit lounged on his belly still holding the wood in his mouth which gave the strong resemblance of a cigar. I was very envious of the kit at this moment cause who wouldn't want to just lay around all day relaxing'

The Rainforest Dandy by Delphine Casimir from Brussels, Belgium: 'This picture was taken in the monkey forest in Ubud, Bali. This place is a crazy place where monkeys are king! Sometimes they give a show, sometimes they climb on you to look for fleas or steal the piece of biscuit you are trying to eat'

Otter Ballerinas by Otter Kwek from Singapore: 'An arabesque smooth coated otter'

Picture me! Picture me!! by Dikla Gabriely from Yokneam, Israel: 'A brown bear in Finland who definitely did everything to make me pay attention to him and focus on him and not the other bears'

Boing! by Lara Mathews from Melbourne, Australia: 'Taken at Westerfolds Park, a beautiful and surprisingly wild pocket of land in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, famous for its kangaroo population. The mob was enjoying some morning sunshine when this joey decided to get silly and try his hand at boxing'

Living the Moment by Kawing Chiu from Staten Island, United States: 'Relax, lay back and enjoy the warm sun... This seal is scratching its face and it is seen lying on the side while his head is supported by his flipper. This image makes the seal like the reclining Buddha statue'

Really should look more into Alphonse Mucha, it’s surreal how iconic his art is and how little I know of him.

Primrose, 1899 Alphonse Mucha

The Famicom/NES port of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (the first game in the series) was co-developed and published by ASCII Entertainment (aka Nexoft) and released in 1987. Jun Suemi designed the monsters for this port and his illustrations grace the trading cards shown here (a partial set only). From my understanding, one random card was included when you bought the game in Japan.

Battleships from my upcoming narrative artbook TANKHEAD