"Gypsy" vs. Reality. Round one.

What do you know about Roma? Not Rome, Italy…but the Romani people? Usually this is the bit where I hear lots of crickets chirping. Ok…
What is it that you know about ‘gypsies’? Fortune tellers? Thieves and vagrants? Belly dancers and covered wagons?

Spoilers! The groups are one in the same with one tiny detail. The term gypsy is an inappropriately placed, now even derogatory nickname for these nomadic people.
This is by far the most serious/political subject I believe holds my interest due to the fact that it gets so little attention. I plan to periodically talk about this subject since there are many facets to cover, but to start with, I’m going to put the Romani history in a nutshell.

First of all, the term “gypsy” comes from a term loosely tying to “Egyptian.” In retrospect I see that in the common ‘gyp’…dunno why I never noticed that the first time I researched this, years ago. Anyway…the reason for the assumption of Egyptian origins comes from the fact that this was a nomadic group of dark haired/skinned people with strange ways that spoke a foreign language.
The problem with this misunderstanding stood with the fact that these nomads remained separate from the whole of society. Later, it turns out that their real origins were that of Indian heritage, with a language that was still heavily based on Sanskrit.

The issue with these people remaining separate from society was that they continued on a path of being unaccepted by the majority. Though there were moments of intrigue when it came to the exotic people, the fascination always took a backseat to prejudice.

Another detail I should mention is about the different groups and how they work/mingle with the rest of society. First of all, the Roma are just one group of many, other examples being the Yenish and the Sinti. They range all over Europe, actually making up the largest minority in many countries.
Each group has been through its own issues in the past, and in fact still face them today. The first example I have for you is the forced assimilation of the Swiss Yenish. Yenish children at one time were taken from their families and placed in orphanages in an attempt to rid themselves of the vagrant minority. When old enough to leave the orphanages, they were placed in prison or mental institutions for the remainder of their lives, criminalized.


Yet another example is the holocaust. Along with many Jews, the nomadic populations were subjected to genocide as well. Over half a million died. These people have been going through obstacles such as this throughout history, and it is no different today.



There are camps in Italy to keep Roma contained, there are politicians attempting to have all “gypsies” fingerprinted, and it is nearly impossible for them to find work with all the discrimination. This is where the controversy comes in.

People had problems with them to begin with, thus drawing a very defined line between the Romani and the rest of society. Then it became easier to live by other, less looked-well-upon means. Then the majority persecutes them for being criminals. This in my opinion is one of those…people are what you make them…scenarios.


This has been a short intro to the Romani, and the basic how things work section. There will be others. In future posts I will be focusing on specific events that have affected the Roma and other groups.

How to draw (sort of). Part III.

In the third installment of this reference guide, sort of drawing…thing, we will continue to go over various details relating to comics, manga, and the thing somewhere in between that I am trying to create. (This makes me wonder how many I will end up with.) Previously I sort of went on a rant about eyes…I apologize for that, they are just so much fun! Anyway, now to move on with things such as clothing and appearance and how it affects characters and such.

Expressions, physical features, and clothing all play a part in how a character is perceived by the reader. Looking at people you know, even strangers, you can collect some basic information about them simply by what they’re wearing. Expensive accessories? Status symbol. Polo and khaki shorts? A guy on the preppy side that goes with the social flow to fit in. Clothes several sizes too small? Someone at odds with their body image. You won’t always be right, but you do naturally form opinions of people without realizing it depending on how they appear in public.

Everyone keeping up so far? Good. Now, the point to this is that if you have a character to draw that plans to annihilate the human race for their own means, you probably don’t want to give them a sparkly cheerleading outfit. This is a very ‘dress for the job you want’ sort of thing. Superhero? Capes, masks, and lots of spandex will achieve your look. Little details will make all the difference.
Lets give some basic character templates, for time and convenience.

First up, the main character. Not much different between the cultures (though I’ll be focusing on superhero type comics first). Most typically, they start out totally normal…something the average reader can apply to. This all changes epically through mutant powers, radioactive spiders, extraterrestrial origins, vampire bites…the list goes on and on…the point being, something makes this average person extraordinary. This pulls them into the plot, whether it be good verses evil, whatever. The point is, world changing shit. From an artistic perspective, the main character has to have traits that draw the eye most. The story is about them after all. Wolverine for example. Mutant, big shiny claws, lots of muscle and crazy hair. That draws attention.



Moving on… Villains. There are two typical kinds. The Brainy kind of villain and the brawn. The brainy type tends to be scrawny in appearance, and stereotypically they are unattractive, bad posture, bad demeanor, etc… The muscle bound villain tends to lack in the intelligence department, also unattractive, usually just wanting to destroy everything for their own reasons. Not as much world dominating like the brainy villain. There is a third category though, the perfect bad guy is a mix of mind and strength, attractive, manipulative, these guys (or girls) tend to be the most dangerous.


Supporting characters! They can be best friends, previous enemies that changed their ways, total strangers that got thrown into the plot with the main character; the point is…they are there to support. Important note: I tend to get too attached to my side characters… Yes they can have wonderful back stories and contribute to the plot… But they can Not attract more attention than your main character(s). There has to be a least a little clarity.

The most important aspect to the whole graphic novel character setup is the dynamic between all the people contributing to the plot. For example, its difficult to have a good protagonist without a good antagonist. And what is a hero without anyone to support them? The reason the appearance of the people drawn makes such a difference is that with the varying pictures, the differences and similarities between people weave an interesting story on their own. The words and dialogue only support the flow that is already there.
This concludes today’s section, but there will be more about graphic novels soon (mainly because I have much more to learn).
Artists can all be found on deviantart.com.

Nightcrawler. Enough said.

Lets just start this by explaining why I have an entire blog devoted to Nightcrawler from X-Men. I have related several aspects of this particularly awesome character to several of my stories: the superhuman abilities, being raised by “gypsies”, the list goes on… However many reasons I have to justify the cause of this particular entry, the most prominent has to be the fact that I am a fan girl. I can admit it, its all good; I even have a friend that is sort of an expert on the X-Men (specifically Nightcrawler) helping me out with all this. All in all, I will be taking inspiration from this brilliant Marvel character, as well as raving about his spectacular-ness.

First of all, Nightcrawler is a mutant, his real name being Kurt Wagner. Unlike the typical mutant trend of powers kicking in at puberty, he was born different. Yellow eyes, three digits on each hand and extended feet, he generally doesn’t blend in with a crowd. Also having a tail and being dark blue in color doesn’t help the conspicuous scale. His mother is Mystique, who dumped him in a river at birth to save herself from a group of townspeople that believed she bore a demon. (The setting is Germany by the way.) Being rescued due to a bit of influence by his father (a really powerful mutant by the name of Azazel) making sure he ended up with someone to raise him. This someone was a gypsy woman Margali Szardos. This woman is a sorceress with a day job as a fortune teller with a traveling circus type dealy. Growing up as a performer (trapeze artist) he was always blatantly different, but surviving until accidentally killing his foster brother… Then getting blamed for something done by said foster brother, thus being persecuted as a village-terrorizing demon. Right before getting staked, Charles Xavier saves him. He then joins the X-Men…many adventures follow.

Now for his fantastic abilities! Since I cannot sum it up better than it is on uncannyxmen.net, I will simply have an excerpt for convenience...and a link of course.


“Mutant-neomorphic physiology gives him a flexible spine for heightened agility, reflexes and coordination, iridescent eyes, blue velvet fur, three fingers on each hand, two toes on each foot, fangs, pointed ears, a prehensile tail, control the inter-atomic bondings between his molecules and those of other objects to cling to solid surfaces, extra-dimensional wormhole surrounding his body absorbs light constantly to cast his body into shadow and make him transparent in darkness, and he can enter the wormhole to teleport from place to place within our dimension seemingly instantaneously, accompanied by a rush of air, a stench of brimstone, and a burst of flame”
http://www.uncannyxmen.net/db/spotlight/showquestion.asp?faq=10&fldAuto=70


That’s some seriously amazing stuff. Fan girl moment happening. Ok…focusing now. Nightcrawler does not have super healing like Wolverine, or the ability to take other mutants’ power such as Rogue, but along with being extra bendy and the skills for a standing jump eight feet in the air…his teleportation is fascinating. In some comics and cartoons, he is limited to line of sight, meaning he can only teleport to somewhere he can see… How this really works however, is as long as he knows where he is going/can visualize it, it will work. The reason for this is…if he did not know where he was going to reappear specifically, he could end up with a pole through him, or in a wall…thus equaling death. He has on one occasion made it back to a certain point by focusing on its smell, but that was one of those single occurrence things.
The range for said teleportation operates along the magnetic fields on the planet. If going east or west, the maximum range is two miles, if going north or south, the limit is three miles. The most difficult direction for him to teleport is straight up. His limit for this is two miles as well, but at this distance and difficulty, it isn’t something he can do without wearing out quickly.

One of the most widely known versions of Kurt Wagner is from the movie X-2 X-Men United. Instead of the velvety exterior, they opted for a more skin and tattooed look, with more emphasis on his circus career in his past. Either way, he was still portrayed closely to the original character and his debut in the movie only added to the following.

Wow, so I’ve been rambling about Nightcrawler enough for now, though this still excludes his many adventures, several costume modifications, social interactions among the other X-Men, and so on…but I believe I will save that for another time. Mostly as an example of an American comic book figure (though he is in fact German), he is a good example of not a main character, but a supporting role, less muscled, shorter, and obviously not average looking…he provides an interesting addition to the more typical appearing heroes.

Fan girl moment, to be continued at a later date.
Credit as always goes to the artists on deviantart.com.

Hello, it's me. With all my opinions. And sizing charts.

It seems every blog I post is pouring forth information from some random idea in my head. Well, that is entirely the case, but I wanted to explain myself more clearly for once. Mentioning time and time again that the reasons for these snippets of seemingly useless blog subjects are for research, I have began to cover two specific stories.

One is a fantasy story, modern day, mostly focusing on psychological perspective. This is the reason for the topic on DID, the main character has something very similar to this disorder. At first, being fantasy, there was no real basis of comparison since I was as free as a bird when it came to creating the world they lived in… Then, the more I thought about it, the story takes place modern-day, in a situation people around my age are quite used to. With all of this realism, I wanted the psychological aspect to fit with this believable realm.
The other, unfinished topic is all about art styles, graphic novels, and general shenanigans involving this story though line art that I am in the process of creating. It is a collaboration of sorts… Several friends of mine and I, con goers as we are, decided that we wanted something unique to cosplay for. In case you are in the dark, cosplaying is the fun activity of dressing like someone from one of your favorite shows, games, movies, etc. Anyway, back to the main point, with fun outfits, a sense of humor and a bit of a sugar-high, the idea for Sugar Charm was born.
This is set up to be a parody of sorts, purposely as stereotypical shojo manga as we could possibly make it. The problem was, after working out the details, we all sort of got attached to the idea. This brings us to the present, where I am now elbow-deep in the beginnings of a hilariously awkward attempt at a graphic novel. I seriously do need to get around to posting some pictures of the progress…eventually.

With a plan for the reoccurring art theme to cover everything I need for this recent project, and other more minor topics for the story involving split personalities, I will be kept very occupied by these two themes with these entries. Also in upcoming topics are some oceanic details for a sci-fi I’m working on, a study of reptiles for yet another sci-fi and also a theme very close to my heart. Several posts will be about the Romani, and I’m so excited about it.

Alright, enough with the explanations! I had a dilemma today. In the story I’ve discussed, the one with the character that has split personalities, I realized I was about to write a scene I have no idea about. Ok, picture it, a girl with no brothers, raised by her mother, and a limited number of male friends…shopping for clothes for a guy. This is easy enough to write around specifics, but it occurred to me that outside my range of American, women’s clothing sizes, I had no idea how the rest of the world worked (fashion-wise).
We all know our individual sizes (hopefully), but never personally having experience with sizes in a different system or designed for a different sex from my own, this was a fascinating little system. Using this site called americanappearal.net, it show the basic shirt sizes for men and women. The main comparison being males tend to be larger than females in stature.


Some things I didn’t know though for instance were things such as the conversion from women’s to men’s sizes. If you subtract 1½ from a woman’s shoe size that is the number they would be if looking for in guys shoes. When it comes to pant however, girls need to add the number 21 to their size and viola. Shirts, girls go down a size. Now that I totally get the comparison, this scene to write will be much funnier. Trust me; just looking us so much comparison between the two sides of clothing has been awkward enough.

I have in fact learned something from the making of this blog and even if you didn’t, I will try harder with the coming posts!
Next up: Romani and Gypsies. Who is what, which is where and why is it all so messed up!