January 23 - Gummy

"Flattery is like chewing gum. Enjoy it but don't swallow it."

~ Hank Ketcham
(Cartoonist - Dennis the Menace)

Gummy was a piece of gum
Who came to life one day,
He thought that he would have some fun
And join in all the play.

But children laughed and jeered at him,
Those rotten little drips.
They picked up gummy where he stood
and bit off Gummy's lips.

He wanted just to make new friends,
But something broke inside him.
Gummy barred his teeth and screamed
Then grabbed the kids to bite 'em.

Now children all have disappeared,
And Gummy's craving meat.
So hide your kids and don't chew gum,
They say, "Revenge is sweet!"

January 22 - One-Punch Man

“Who decides limits? And based on what? You said you worked hard? Well, maybe you need to work a little harder. Is that really the limit of your strength? Could the you of tomorrow beat you today? Instead of giving in, move forward.”

~ Saitama One-Punch Man

On an alternate earth, Saitama has trained himself to be a superhero by doing 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats and a 10km run every day.  It took over three years but he effectively broke the limits of strength and now he can effortlessly defeat any creature with one punch.

So he's bored -- it's one of the more fantastic anime out there in my opinion.

Saitama is the kind of "pure" hero that you can admire, with a firm grasp of right and wrong, but boredom is his arch nemesis - he says in one episode, “In exchange for gaining strength, have I lost something more important as a human being? Emotions used to swirl within me when I fought. Fear, impatience, anger… But now… Day after day, after one punch I go home unharmed and wash my gloves.”

I was inspired to make this balloon after I saw Namco Bandai was coming out with a One-Punch Man fighting game.  The very idea is hilarious and when I looked -- indeed there was a graphic of Saitama standing as champion, his combo score: 1.     Bwwahahahhahahhahahaaaaaa!  Love it!

I had to redo his face, a bored expression is very similar to a worried expression, it's in the shape of the eyes. 

January 21 - The Mask of the Horned God

Inside the night there's a firelight
Between the worlds, at the edge of dark.

Inside the fire there's a blinding light,
The flame that burns between the worlds.
At the edge of the dark.

When a shadow is forced into the light
It rips through your chest and burns like a fire.

~ Swallow The Sun
   When a Shadow is Forced Into the Light

The Mask of the Horned God bestows upon its wearer both virility and fertility, but is cursed and once worn can never be removed.  In the days approaching Yule, the bearer will grow weak as his life force is withdrawn and used to rekindle the Horned God, leaving the mask to where it fell.  Yet even with this sacrifice there are those who willingly seek it out.  Children born of those who wear the Mask of the Horned God are exclusively female and likely to be powerful witches.

The Horned God in traditional Wicca is the "Divine Male Principle", considered opposite and equal to the Goddess.  He is born in winter, impregnates Her in spring and then dies in early winter to be reborn by the Goddess at Yule and start the cycle anew.

The inspiration for this balloon is the band Swallow the Sun and their emotional album When a Shadow is Forced Into the Light.  I have already talked about them in an earlier post, so I will leave it to you if you want to read more about the band - the cover of the album has a grim figure wearing a deer antler mask.

I do like the way the robe works .. but I am not satisfied with how the arms attach to this style of body and won't do anything but *sproing!* up without tying them down.

December 17 - Nobody

The visible is always a mirror of the invisible. The reality is imagined before it manifests itself.

~ Paulo Coelho

Never open a closet with the lights off, a Nobody is a parasite that thrives in total darkness. 

Free, a Nobody will hide in a victim's shadow, slowly transforming itself as it feeds on unrealized potential and replaces it with an unsettling emptiness.  As it grows in strength, the Nobody's host is driven further into darkness and despair - finally metamorphosing into a Nobody him or herself, beginning the cycle anew.

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I was going for a white tuxedo look to the body, but I really like the articulation from making the limb joints this way.  It has a clean look and allows for some good possibilities.. some pose-abilities?  (nailed it)

I took inspiration from multiple sources for this balloon, first from a short-film called "So You've Grown Attached" about an imaginary friend coming to terms with his child growing up, if you're unfamiliar with DUST - enjoy, you have a lot of fantastic content.  But also just now from images in the newly released Demons & Wizards video, "Diabolic" for their upcoming album.  (I'm a big BIG fan of Blind Guardian, and this is Hansi Kürsch's second band - but his voice and the music are so distinct, for all practical purposes it's like another Blind Guardian.)   Both had this sort of "nothing man" that I thought both terrifying and innocent.

As I typed those last words, I had this - "oh no" moment that someone might apply their own racial meanings to this balloon.  To those people I would encourage to both watch my source videos, and maybe like .. just grow the heck up.  Or perhaps, open a closet with the lights off.

(and yet I will probably not share this on any public social media platforms because of potential unintended offense and easy potential for anonymous cruelty.   I just wanted to make a person with a void face!!!!) 

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Click.

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February 2 - Swallow the Sun

Cast all the demons in the sea,
Into the abyss of the Earth,
To the sleep of the whales' song,
I want you to bury me. Bury me!

Swallow the Sun Upon the Water (link)

The inspiration for this balloon comes from the band Swallow the Sun.

Swallow the Sun released a new album last month entitled "When a Shadow is Forced Into the Light".  They are a Finnish extreme metal band that was recently given exposure on a YouTube channel I subscribe to - BangerTV.

Apparently the album is in part a tribute to the tragic loss of front man Juho Raivo's life-partner, Aleah Starbridge to cancer.  Art is built upon emotion, and this album is steeped in it - with slow dirges set against screaming rage and loss.  It's hard not to get caught up in the sentiment.

Fuck cancer.

This balloon took a few iterations to get something that I liked, at first I went with a more snake-like creature but reasoned that the actual "swallowing" of the sun wasn't as important as the "chomp".  I also tried a version with teeth and texture inside the mouth, but in a creature large enough to swallow a sun this would affect the sense of scale I was going for.

January 30 - Nevermore

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!—
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—
On this home by Horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore—
Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

Edgar Allen Poe The Raven

The inspiration for this balloon is certainly this poem which I studied and wrote a paper on when in high school, but it was prompted more directly by the most recent song released from one of my favorite bands for their upcoming album The Heretics which also used the poem as inspiration.  (link)

Don't let their name fool you the way it did Dave Mustaine when he refused to play a festival with them on the ticket, Rotting Christ is a brilliant and often outspoken band that took this name to prove a point as front man Sakis Tolis describes:

Living in (so called) democratic societies, I think everyone should have the right to call religions as he/she wants. We in fact simply believe they are "rotting"! We are not a "satanic-crusader" type of band but rather one of the many bands that represent the dark side in nowadays Metal music.

They are what Skyrim would sound like as heavy metal.  It's warrior music and their song lyrics and topics are widely varied and well researched.  This most recent album, The Heretics (to be released February 2019) has Sakis exploring artists, philosophers and poets that were at one point defined by the church as heretics.

According the Cambridge dictionary a heretic is "a person who has beliefs that are opposed to the official belief of a church and that the church considers wrong".  It's a non-conformist, or a non-believer - someone who would a be a threat to indoctrinated thought.  It is such a broad definition, a label designed to create division and silence a dissenting opinion.  Be a heretic.

January 23 - Where's Mitch?

Hands in chains for a fist full of dollars
Who do we blame for the holes in our knowledge?
The past you know has been written by the victor
So I ask you now, who is it writing your future?
The butcher, the liar, the thief or the killer?
Your freedom died quiet in the halls of power

~ Parkway Drive Absolute Power

Day 33 of the US Government shutdown.

Our government was designed to have a system of checks and balances so that no one branch would have all the power.  This is only effective if those that have the power to check, provide the balance.

This is not the case with Mitch McConnell.  He has proven to be a lackey to the whims and will of a TV personality president, a subservient politician, concerned more with image and re-election than doing what is right for the American people.  He's refuses to put forth a bill to protect the Mueller investigation, he used the nuclear option (which he was outspoken opponent of when in the minority) to decrease the number of votes for Supreme Court appointee approval from 60 to 51, and he refuses to bring forth a bill to fund the government despite having an overwhelming majority of Senators from both parties support - enough to even override any presidential veto, and he hides in a "hideaway" office instead of deal with outspoken new democratic house member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  Coward.  #wheresmitch

Being that he is up for re-election, I really hope the people of Kentucky realize the damage and danger such a weak person does to our political system.  Your freedom died quiet in the halls of power indeed.