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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork

@alzamon.bsky.social
1.4K followers 626 following 7.2K posts

Alberto González, Costa Rican 🇨🇷 children's illustrator, middle grade comics author, character designer. Not sure of what I'm doing but I do anyway. Portfolio 👉 alzamon.com Newsletter 👉 newsletter.alzamon.com Elsewhere 👉 go.alzamon.com

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Reposted by Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork
𝑨𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝑺𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒔 🦑 @andressanchis.bsky.social · 3h
¡Viva las bibliotecas! ¡Viva los libros! ¡Viva al Cultura, las historias y las personas! Os dejo, en petit comité, una propuesta ilustrada que no salió adelante para un proyecto de @squidandpig.bsky.social. Nunca lo habíamos publicado ni compartido. Ositos lectores que se parten de risa ;) #art
Osito lector de humor.
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 8h
The same could be said from picture books, GNs and the like. Even if AI´s sources were finally ethically correct and all that to produce them, they would still suck in the sense that creative art and writing are intimate exchanges between *human* minds and worlds, not fabricated hallucinations. 📚
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Brandon Santiago @4brandonjs4.bsky.social · 16h
Remember, fellow artists: it’s okay for your sketchbooks to be messy. That’s kind of the point. It doesn’t have to be fancy like those sketchbook tours on Instagram. Funny thing is I gotta remind myself that sometimes too. lol
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 17h
Team Cascão desde o berço ✊
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 19h
So I'm here trying to finish a piece for tomorrow but... let's just say everything's incredibly hard when you feel like rowing through molasses all the time. 😪
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Scruffo @scruffodraws.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Another concept piece as I try to figure out how to improve my backgrounds
1930s scene of a cartoon girl crossing a street and telling a cat, "ya gotta stay vigilant, kid. This city will eat you alive if you ain't careful!". She's too busy playing with a yoyo to notice the Ford Model A slamming on the breaks to avoid hitting them.
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Meg @meganroseruiz.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Apparently I don’t know what gray is?
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R. LaFille @rivkahlafille.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I see the "how to avoid burnout" question making the rounds, and as always, my answer is this:
kidscomicsunite.com
How to Build a Career in Graphic Novels and Not Kill Yourself Doing It. - Kids Comics Unite
Once upon a time, I was young(er), bright-eyed, and twenty-three. I also happened to have my first graphic novel to finish, and less than a year in which to do […]
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Brandon Santiago @4brandonjs4.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Imagine having a somewhat cute looking mascot character for your company and using them to defend a bad business decision you made… only to then see millions of artists draw every imaginable type of torture committed onto that mascot. Brutal, but still deserved.
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Norin 🦈 🔜 Nycc 3679? @mahoukarp.com · 30/09/2026
giant pikachu 🐁⚡️ #art #pokemon
Illustration of a gigantic pikachu in the middle of a city
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The Inside Out remake nobody asked for. Now seriously, what is it with AI and all these kawaii-cutesy avatars? What's the idea? Souring us all on the cute and cuddly? 🥲🐹
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pxmolina @pxmolina.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Today is Mafalda's 62nd “birthday”. Quino's brilliant comic strip is as relevant and popular as ever. The only sad part of this is all the stupid AI-generated slop that makes her say all sorts of nonsense she never actually said. But anyway, here's my tribute (not made with AI).
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
And of course the capybara fulfilling its nature-assigned, complementary role of undisturbable zen pillow/sofa 🐹
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Having had a previous life as a tech worker meant having known too many people who didn't see anything wrong with AI and were rather hyped, very vocal enthusiasts of it... until it began messing with their very job security and career futures. Meanwhile, artists:
static.klipy.com
First Time? Meme from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
ALT: First Time? Meme from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“Ugly drawings are better than AI drawings” But of course.
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schmoe :⬮] @spongebeatle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
having artist friends with styles way more complex than yours but they still fw you
static.klipy.com
Chris Griffin Dances: Take On Me (Family Guy)
ALT: Chris Griffin Dances: Take On Me (Family Guy)
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Abeeha Tariq @abeehatariqart.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
something a bit more different from me but I got a lot to say and I’m not comfortable in front of a camera so… keep AI out of schools!!
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
But Pogo's P.T. Bridgeport did it first 📣
Sample frame of Walt Kelly's Pogo featuring the character of P.T. Bridgeport talking in elaborate fonts in the old style of retro posters of the 19th century
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I felt seen 🥲
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
No one wants to be the harbinger of bad news but hey it´s Monday and I hate them as much as Garfield does so whatever 🫠🥲
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
My boomer mom, today: “What’s a Substack?” She wasn’t ready for my response. 🫠🤷‍♂️
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Unseen Japan @unseenjapan.com · 28/09/2026
NEW: Is it true that Japan loves AI because of Shinto? Not really. In fact, a slew of surveys show that use and acceptance of generative AI is much more muted in the land of Astro Boy and Doraemon than recent headlines imply.
unseen-japan.com
Japan Doesn't Love AI As Much As You Think It Does
Does Japan REALLY welcome its new robot overlords? A deep dive into what Japan thinks about AI.
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Samantha Mash @samanthamash.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Be an artist so you too can live a freewheeling life that consists of working 12 hours a day, including weekends, for months at a time
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I like to tell this story: when I was in kindergarten the teacher had us draw a simple contour of a pine. For Christmas I guess. Everybody did. I couldn’t. She ended up helping me. You wouldn‘t believe it from me, would you? But so it happened. I just kept practicing. 🥹🌲
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I feel attacked 🥹
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Amalas @amalasrosa.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Me and my perspective grid against the world
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Charles Brubaker (NEW BOOK PRE-ORDER!) @bakertoons.com · 27/09/2026
I hear it's International Rabbit Day today!
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Just finished sending an arts fair application that's kept me busy and now I'd just want some days off to throw myself into dooding stupid things just because, do fanart and so and so on. It's been months since I last could have some "me" time! 🥹
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I got to know Pedro Molina at a college event some years ago, an incisive Nicaraguan-born, US-based prolific political cartoonist and I think it's worth more people know about his work. :)
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Dallbert @dallyjk.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Lovely potential cover for a little something :3 Done on stream yesterday it was quite fun.
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Just makes you think how detached can someone be for not reading the room, do something like this and then pretend no one is gonna have a problem with it. 🤦🏻‍♂️
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Art is work. Comics and illustration ARE work. It wears and tears on you like any other job. But it is never held on high esteem as that of other white collar jobs. We are not plotting machines. And you can't create a quality product and be overworked / burned out at the same time.
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I have notes. (1) Why dress up a PR release as an interview? Why take any of this at face value when there’s so much to dig into? (2) Related: “WHY AREN’T THERE MORE GRAPHIC NOVELS FOR MIDDLE SCHOOLERS” should immediately disqualify you from conducting any kind of comics-related “interview.”
Screencap from “Novvel.co Produces Graphic Novel Adaptations with AI Assistance” by Ed Nawotka for Publishers Weekly, accessed 9/23/2026. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/101260-novvel-co-pioneers-producing-graphic-novels-with-ai-assistance.html


We came together around the question of how to make reading exciting again in a world of declining attention spans. We spent a lot of time talking to teachers and parents, and looked at literacy data, which shows the biggest drop in reading tends to happen right around the grade level when kids are also getting their first phones, typically middle school.

We landed on the hypothesis that a graphic novel is the ideal format to bring people back to reading, not just reluctant readers.

[Question] Why isn't there more graphic-novel content already, if the format works so well?

[Answer] Production is expensive and slow. The average production cost of a graphic novel runs somewhere between $20,000 and $50,000, and it typically takes 12 to 18 months. Most small publishers and authors don't have that kind of capital to spend on a bet, and even large publishers that do have it have to be very selective about what they commit it to.

[Question] Walk me through what the platform actually does.

[Answer] You put in a manuscript. The system spends time studying the story, including the thesis, the background, the protagonist, and the emotional beats that pay off for a reader, and produces a storyboard that gets you to roughly 60-70% of a finished product.

Then an editor, the author, and an illustrator go in and shape that further, because a purely Al-generated output tends to lack soul and be generic. This is not a self-driving car. It's more like handing a Ferrari to someone who already knows how to drive.
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
That’s the Spanish dubbing playing so it probably wasn’t too far from here. 😅
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
My, how the once almighty now crumble to dust. I admit I liked the comic in the beginning (that's the early aughts for you li'l sprouts) but then he got bitten by the worst kind of unfunny bug and lost his way and his mind. Thus he remains now as a cautionary tale.
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Personally sick and tired of having my inbox flooded with "remote, flextime" job offers to train AI models so they can further take more jobs away from me. 🫠 I mean, they don't even check who are they sending these things to, do they.
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 23/09/2026
it would probably be foolish to dismiss this out of hand. it represents a real threat to real livelihoods. but to criticize it on its merits, it benefits from an art style where mistakes can be played off as intentional and its subject matter is a bunch of insufferable AI industry in-jokes
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Vero @taeshi.bcb.cat · 22/09/2026
Your website should be your ol’ reliable for your comic, your place you can call home. Social media and “webtoon” platforms should be used for crossposting and nothing more! They should never be trusted, they can always disappear tomorrow, but with a website your comic has a safe consistent home!
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
So what am I doing? Trying to further push the designs of those critters that's what. All hail the chonky capybara.
My sketchbooks with attempts at further simplifying coati and capybara animal designs
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
So I am kinda time pressed to produce some watercolor samples for an art fair pitch and I'm finding super hard to make the switch, as in not using the computer = "not working". And because it's been years since I last had the habit. Will need to actually turn everything off for a while. 🥹🎨
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
So all of a sudden, us crusty old schoolers who always insisted on building and control our own platforms for whatever get sort of proven right (again) 🙃 I mean social media is cool, necessary even but you don't own Insta nor FB, you _can_ own your website and the data of atproto networks like Bsky
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Sarah Andersen @sarahseeandersen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The image is of a four panel comic.
In the first panel we see Sarah, the protagonist, next to a stick figure labeled “AI”. The stick figure says, “my outputs look just like yours now.”
The second panel zooms in on Sarah’s face. Above her we see text reading “I think”.
The third panel zooms in closer on Sarah’s face. Text above her reads “you missed”.
The fourth panel shows Sarah drawing happily in a sunlit room. The text above her reads “the point”.
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I was juggling lots of balls when I made this but I just couldn't disappoint ol' Jon. Granted, I went with the first idea I thought of, knowing Bubble's penchant for, uh, bubbling himself up. 🫧 And then he wrote a whole backstory about it, out of the blue. Jon should be a co-writer of my gags 😅
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Meg @meganroseruiz.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Let me teach you about color theory!
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Matthew Dow Smith @matthewdowsmith.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
My deepest hope for the increasing likelihood that, like, 4 guys are going to own the entire entertainment industry is that we're going to get an avalanche of incredible indie work in every medium that finally buries the safe, four quadrant approach everyone has been following for too long.
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Elio @eliopictures.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Fine Art = creates problems. (raising awareness, asking questions). Illustration = solves problems (story telling, visual problem solving). You can love both and they love each other. The End.
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Know what, I've come to a point where I really don't care if my work is deemed "artsy" or not. It serves a purpose and as long as that purpose is fulfilled everything else is bonus. "Art" is in the eye of the beholder anyway. 🙃
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Jon Esparza @jonscrazyblues.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I was alerted by @danacorn.bsky.social that yesterday was #NationalFoxDay. Obviously, I’m devastated that #BubbleFox missed out on a day clearly meant for him, so in his honor, and the honor of ALL cartoon foxes, here’s more Bubble Fox than y’all can handle!
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Brb I'm taking the DeLorean to the 1920s kthxbye
Federal Schools correspondence course ad, presumably 1920s-1930s, with the catchphrase "Cartoonists Make Big Money" featuring big shot of the day Sid Smith
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Alzamon | Middle Grade Comics & Artwork @alzamon.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Aka "the rest of the world realizing what artists have been through over the last four years"? Really? Tell me more... Of course no one cared about artists until this thing began messing with their very own businesses' bottom line...
404media.co
‘Doom Loop’: OpenAI and Microsoft Admits LLMs Are Destroying the Web and Built on Theft
"Millions of people around the world will soon consider large models ‘hoovering up’ all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions."
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