Hello, I am known as K-8 (aka "conscious_object"). Here I keep a fetish blog with a (skewed) sense of humor. Contained herein you will find my various random thoughts on my unique fetishes, and interesting finds culled from all over the intarweb, including art by my friends, and sometimes my own art.

Note: You do not need to have a Livejournal account in order to reply to an entry, as I have "anonymous posting" enabled. Just make sure to sign your name at the bottom, or I'll have no idea which comments are yours.

I still haven't gotten around to reading The Umbrella Academy (though it caught me by surprise one day when I saw the cover with the violin girl sitting out on the new releases table at Barnes & Noble). I hear it's good, so I do plan on grabbing it eventually.

In case you haven't heard, it's also since been green-lighted to be made into a movie. Very curious how they will do the violin girl (who I've since discovered is actually called The White Violin, so I should probably start using that name). Will the strings still be just black lines painted on? Or will they try to create some sort of texture to them so they pop out (since adding texture has become the thing to do with comic characters in movies the last decade or so)?

Here are a few non-movie-related three dimensional takes on the character. Firstly, there are some PVC figures Dark Horse had on display during last summer's convention season:



There is also a special deluxe edition of the graphic novel that comes with a (slightly larger?) figurine of just violin gi-- The White Violin:





And lastly, a body paint photo shoot of a model who decided to dress up as the character (you can see the rest of her gallery here):



(Images found by "Bastian" and "Utsumi.")

I've joked in the past that you could almost devote a whole blog just to instances of X-Men author Chris Claremont injecting his favorite fetishes into the stories he writes. However, I was wrong. You can actually devote a whole blog to any one of his fetishes, as just proven to me by the fittingly named ClarMindControl.

Pointed to me by "utsumi," Tokyo! is an independent film comprised of three short stories, each by a different director. The segment "Interior Design," directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind and that Bjork robot music video), is described as:

A young couple tries to set themselves up in Tokyo. The young man's ambition is clear — to become a film director. His girlfriend, far more indecisive, cannot escape the vague feeling that she's losing control of her life. Directionless, both are beginning to go under in this vast city until the young woman, utterly alone, becomes the object of a bizarre transformation...

Sound interesting? Take a look:



Chairs may not be one of my more favorite transformations, but when it's done like this (the leg-walking part in particular)... I wonder if he'd be open to taking suggestions for possible ideas to do next? ;-)

The short is actually a loose adaptation of comic story called "Cecil And Jordan In New York" by Gabrielle Bell. "Loose" because the original is only a four-page story, so Gondry has embellished some to stretch it out a bit (not to mention, changing the setting to Tokyo to go with the overall film's theme). Also, the trailer makes it appear to be an unexpected transformation, whereas in the story she does it completely of her own accord.

In fact, part of what makes the story so funny to read is just how nonchalant she is about the change, sort of like "yeah, so I thought I'd become a chair. *shrug*" The idea being that she is found by some unsuspecting person, and when they leave she turns back into a person and enjoys having "free" room and board.



You can read the full four-page story here.

It will be interesting to see how Gondry's take differs.

This is the cover of a new graphic novel by Gerard Way (of My Chemical Romance). I haven't read it yet, but I understand violin girl here is a key character:

Loved the first scene of this Wotch strip from earlier in the week. A creative reason to have that particular TF occur.

Figured I should post this next, since a few people enquired after I mentioned it.

X-Men #1-3. The X-Men are battling Magneto and his Acolytes. The fight comes to an abrupt stop thanks to an Acolyte called Chrome. Guess what he does?



This is not the first time Claremont has statuefied an X-Man.

Perhaps seeing this is what gives Magneto the idea to do what he does with Moira MacTaggart. See, Magneto isn't very happy with Moira. Moira was entrusted with him when he was reduced to an infant for a period, during which she examined his genetic code, and discovered what might be responsible for his behaving like such a crazed maniac in adulthood. (And when ultimately reverted back into an adult, he wasn't aged back fully for some reason, which is why he appears so young in the comics for someone who's a Holocaust survivor...and that's just a mild example of how convoluted the X-Men got during the 90s).

Magneto is highly disturbed with the thought of someone tampering with the core of his being while in a vulnerable state, and makes Moira aware of this fact.





Absolute control over her body...and her ability to speak: ( Continue Reading... )

I once mentioned some time ago about how Chris Claremont has a reputation for injecting some of his pet fetishes (that is to say: fetishes he particularly enjoys, not fetishes for pets ;-)) into his stories, many of which I seem to share (body transformation, mind control, etc.).

I've thought off and on of making a "regular feature" of occasionally posting about stories of his where these elements pop up, but I admit I've been unsure what tone to take in writing about it. Because on the one hand, his earlier stories are very well-written, and the fetish themes are more subtle, which makes it seem less indulgent on his part. Yet his later stories are a little more un-good, and the fetish themes either pop up so often that they start to get annoying (like when some variety of mind control pops up in every other story), or are so un-subtle as to become obnoxious (see the Storm S&M romp X-Treme X-Men: Storm - The Arena, which I'm sure I'll cover one of these days).

As a result, I'm torn between wanting to celebrate Claremont and how reading stories like this with certain themes popping up often enough for me realize I probably wasn't alone in these fetishes and fascinations (before I was even aware of the word "fetish"), or to poke fun at how ridiculous it eventually becomes.

Which means, y'know, I'll probably be end up doing a little bit of both. ;-)

Aside from that story I previously mentioned, the other earliest Claremont issues I remember reading were X-Men (1991) #1-2, and Sovereign Seven #11. The X-Men issues happen to contain a bit where Magneto coats Moira MacTaggart in a thin layer of metal, allowing him to restrict her movements however he likes, and even put her on mute if he so desires...but I'll get to that another time. ;-)

This issue of his creator-owned series Sovereign Seven, on the other hand, I think might be the most transform-tastic issue he's ever written. I could be wrong, because I've not yet read every single thing Claremont has written, but where its usually just one or two people that get transformed in odd ways, in this one it's nearly half the team.

Three villains have entered their quarters in order to attack the team, which villain named after an artist, with powers based upon the imagery of their namesake. Escher disorients them by turning their surroundings into impossible constructions. Bosch summons a bunch of giant demon flies...which actually behave more like spiders, for no explainable reason other than that so characters can get all bound up in goopy black webbing and have their own little S&M experience:



A moment later, the fly pinches his nose shut, forcing his mouth open, and ejaculates a goopy narcoleptic substance into his mouth. I'm not joking.

And the third villain is Arcimboldo, who -- guess what? -- transforms characters into living objects.

At least, that's what he does most of the time. The transformations start out looking fairly Arcimboldo-like, with one woman turned into a construction of matches (and initially threatened with a lighter, but turns the tables on the villains at the end after they've been subdued):



Another character turned into, I guess, a human Erector Set:



And Cruiser, whose power is fueled by how much body mass he has, is starved and then turned into:



But then the transformations stray a bit. Because I don't really recall Arcimboldo ever painting people to look animal-esque, yet here's one of the team turned into a fishgirl:



And other teammate being threatened to become a catgirl:



Wait no, change her first before you run away...! What a tease.

So, y'know, not the coolest-looking transformations or anything, but I'd never seen a story quite like this.

This comic was a filler strip from quite some time back, but I love how well the panel of the TF sequence was done, and the painterly coloring style:



(Having the character being turned into a hand-puppet is sort of an inside-joke punchline, related to a running gag about one of the comic's characters wanting to sneak in and do hand puppet versions of the stories.)

Guess what I finally got ahold of? That clip from Mr. Wizard's World I'd been wanting to track down.


So funny to see this again now as an adult. Am I the only one that almost started laughing when she says "this feels neat"? I wonder if she ended up developing similar interest when she grew up...? ;-)


And speaking of television moments that involved headlessness and scarred me for life, I just recently discovered a music video that -- like Talking Heads' "Love For Sale" -- I saw at such a young age, and sounded so bizarre when I'd try to put it into words, that I'd questioned if it was all my imagination. But no, the video for "Doing It All For My Baby" by Huey Lewis, it turns out, was all too real.

The video starts with Huey Lewis and the crew on their way to or from another, when one of their tires goes flat. For some reason, getting the spare off involves getting under the van while it's propped up, and Huey does the honors. Only jack falls out, and the van falls on top of him, crushing him to death! The rest of the band are shocked, and try to get him out...but confirm that he's dead. They killed Huey Lewis! And I'm only, like, four when I'm watching this. ;-P

The rest of the band is shocked for a moment, then are like "eh, screw 'em" and go to find any nearby place they can find. What they end up finding is some sort of creepy mansion, and...well, to make a long story short, Huey's is revived by a mad scientist who turns him into a Frankenstein-ian creation, after the rest of the band have already ended up as heads in jars...

Here it is, in case you don't believe me:


But rather than "scarring me for life" in a fun way like the Mr. Wizard clip, this one just left me forever paranoid that the jack might fall out and injure someone anytime I see someone changing a tire... ;-P

(And that concludes today's therapy season, thanks for coming. ;-P)


See the rest of the magic show.

I'd never really thought of it this way before, but Mary Jane would have to be one lucky woman.

I just ran across a few pages from a comic coming out in a few weeks called The Nightmare Factory, filled of short stories adapted from the works of a horror writer named Thomas Ligotti. One of the writers adapting the work recently posted a few pages in his blog from one story called "Dream Of A Mannikin." That second second page totally makes me curious to see the rest. Is it going where I think it is...? ;-)

Even more amusing, when the artist of the story posted the same two pages in his own blog (though out of order, it seems?), one of the LJ tags he included at the bottom was "weird kinky stuff." Hmmmm... ;-)

I posted earlier about Claremont often writing fetish-y elements into his stories on X-Men (subtle at first, but gradually more blatant as the years progressed). The funny thing is, themes of forced-transformation were so common in his run, that even after he left, other writers would end up continuing it, perhaps not entirely realizing since it'd become just the X-Men-like thing to do.

One common theme that continues to pop up today is roboticization. (Oh, hey look -- Wikipedia even has an article on the topic...which reminds me I need to write an entry on the dark Sat-AM Sonic The Hedgehog cartoon. I know several of you have similarly fond memories, since I've discussed it with a few of you. ;-))

The first X-Men roboticization story I encountered (written years after Claremont had left) involved the return of an old villain named Cameron Hodge, who'd turned himself into this being of organic machinery. He brings with an old girlfriend Archangel's, revived from the dead. As Archangel starts ripping into Hodge, his old girlfriend discovers something suprising:







That image of her pulling at her lip with her roboticized hands, in particular, has always stuck in my brain. Not because I found this particular example of the fetish to be in any way erotic, but just because it's so "omg, intense."


Most recently, a different roboticized character has actually joined one of the main X-Men teams. In the late 90's, a new type of mutant-hunting Sentinels were introduced, called Prime Sentinels. These are unassuming humans implanted with nanotechnology, who act as "sleeper agents." When activated, the human's body is transformed into an armored machine, their consciousness overridden by Sentinel programming to hunt down whatever nearby mutant.

When Claremont returned to the X-Men in 2001, he naturally latched onto the idea. He introduces a new character, whose just recently discovered he's a mutant...and when his powers first materialize, he and his girlfriend discover that she was unknowingly a Prime Sentinel.

A few years later, Claremont revives the Sentinel girl, coming up with a way where Xavier is able to undo her programming. Unfortunately, she's still stuck with a cyborg body, and has to adjust to this new development. Her cyborg body doesn't have hair, so she wears a wig to try and appear more "normal."

Wikipedia actually has a quote from Claremont talking about why he likes the character:

"I liked the idea of her. The notion... of someone being transformed into a wholly mechanical being and what effects that has on sense of self, sense of soul? She’s an outcast from both human and mutant society, yet bound by her own personal sense of honor to try to protect both."

Oh Claremont, you had me at "I liked (...) the notion...of someone being transformed into a wholly mechanical being," lol. In that same series, he also brought back an old favorite character of his, but whose now adjusting to being stuck with her arms having been transformed into tentacles. I kid you not.

Current X-Men writer Mike Carey seemes to like the robo-girl character (now going by the codename "Omega Sentinel") enough to make her an official honorary X-Man in his series. Rogue's team finds her shut off and in a state of disassembly during one mission, and bring her back to the mansion. Here Beast is working on putting her back together, after which she joins the team:

Okay, not really, but I would've been amused. ;-P

(And wouldn't have been entirely out of place in an issue of Claremont's Sovereign Seven.)

Chris Claremont, for those unfamiliar with the name, is most well known for a stint writing the X-Men comic that lasted 16 consecutive years (1976-1991), during which he helped popularize the characters (the X-Men was previously one of Marvel's lower selling team books, at one time having even been cancelled for a period!). He's responsible for co-creating a number of prominant characters during his run, such as Rogue, Mystique, Sabretooth, Phoenix, Shadowcat, Gambit, Jubilee, etc. etc.

Those who are attentive of such things will also notice when reading his stories that he seems to love regularly injecting BDSM undertones into his stories (in recent times to the point of overindulgance and almost self-parody, unfortunately), and clearly has a fetish for mind control, as well as a transformation fetish. (I think it'd be amusing one day to put together a checklist of all the stories he's written with one or all of these themes. ^_^)

Claremont had moved onto other things by the time I'd started reading X-Men as a kid, so I was only exposed to his original X-Men stories via reprints and back issues. But early on -- before I was even familiar with the word "fetish" -- I recognized that we seemed to have some of these similar interests, lol.

The first story of his I ever read was from Uncanny X-Men #179 (from 1984). One sequence in particular always stuck in my head, that upon first reading made my 10-year-old self feel all weird in ways I didn't understand. ;-P





The girl, for those who've only seen the movies, is Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat), the one who can walk through walls. And yes, for a short period in the 80's, Storm sported a mowhawk. The only transformation here that really appeals to me is the faceless drone (which I'd actually completely forgot was there, until rereading this story again for the first time just today!), but the sequence really got the wheels of my imagination turning as far as pondering what sorts of things would be possible with such a power.

And then of course there's the line at the end, "I'm not some toy, a doll for you to play with!" Wait-- both "toy" and "doll" in the same sentence? OMG *sudden moment of realization*...I think this whole blog may be all Claremont's fault...!

;-P

But today's The Wotch is kinda hot. ;-)

Something for the android TF folks. The manga Ghost In The Shell is, of course, already full of all sorts of life-like androids and robotic things, though not much necessarily in the way of transformation. This image however I found slightly amusing because out-of-context it could easily have completely different stories created around explaining what's going on. Or I think so, at least.



A girl who's awakened in the middle of being turned into an android? Or perhaps she was somehow transformed into an android by mysterious means, and government scientists are disecting her to figure out how it happened / how her mechanized body works?

Or maybe K-8 is just a monstrous dork? ;-P

Two comics strips that in the same week that shared a similar gag which amused me:


From today's Foxtrot (soon retiring from daily strips, sadly):

But The Wotch did it first (via guest artist Ian Samson):

Inflation/deflation transformation has never done much for me, but I know there are others out who quite enjoy it, so when I came across this little sequence in Orion by Masamune Shirow (creator of Ghost In The Shell) I thought I'd scan it in and post it here.

But first, the set-up: this is a futuristic sci-fi world where sorcery takes the place of science. Seska is the female lead. Her father has stolen the "Dharmaquation," a powerful "top secret" sorcery script. He knows people are going to try and steal it back and knows he needs to find a creative place to hide it. His solution?:

( Gee...I Just Turned Into A Top Secret! )

This brings us to the male lead -- Susano, God Of Destruction -- who's come to disrupt Seska's father's plan. Of course, the most straightforward way to go about this is to simply take the Dharmaquation for himself. Does that mean removing the script from Seska and placing it on a different sort of canvas? Nah, Susano apparently has a simpler idea:

( *Casts A Spell, And...* )