iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

A comic about realizing that I have been chosen for a great destiny: squishing silverfish.

A comic in three parts. This is panel 1. A scene in soothing risograph colors, depicting a middle aged man in front of a washing machine and dryer. On the floor in front of him is a rubber mallet.

Panel 2. The man is holding the rubber mallet dramatically.

Panel three. An over the shoulder shot of the same guy holding the rubber mallet. You can see that there’s a squished bug on it.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

In my formative years, I borrowed my elementary school’s copies of D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths and Greek Myths so often, that a relative took pity on the librarians & bought me my own copies. Periodically that formative experience bubbles up again (by which I mean constantly). Support libraries!

Two kids in the foreground hold ravens. They look quite pleased about it, as they should. Behind them stand Thor (who looks like a bright orange bear) and Odin (who looks like a weather beaten scarecrow). In the background are some trees and a stave church.)

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

First Democrat that commits to banishing Trump (and his cabinet), Netanyahu, and Putin to the Phantom Zone gets my vote.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

I was at a friend’s house on Halloween, and Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon came Trick-or-Treating with their daughter.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

When I was a wee lad of 21, I thought I wanted to be a political cartoonist. I had a weekly strip in the school paper that was so baroque that I genuinely don’t know what I was talking about, when I look back upon them. Anyway, I periodically dip a toe back into political commentary…

A single panel comic. A white middle aged man is gleefully writing a letter at a desk. The word balloons read:

“DEAR PRIME MINISTER JONAS GAHR STORE, MY NAME IS BRYANT. I AM 52 3/4 YEARS OLD, & I HAVE BEEN EVER SO GOOD THIS YEAR.

I KEPT MY ROOM TIDY. I ATE MY VEGETABLES, & I PREVENTED SEVEN OR EIGHT WARS. I WOULD LIKE A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, OR A NEW BICYCLE, OR A BB GUN.

AND MAYBE ONE FOR MY LITTLE BROTHER.

BUT NOT AS GOOD.”

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

I highly recommend the whole Worlds without Master run. Lots of great games, illustrations, comics, and miscellany. Comics and illustrations from Swords without Master RPG art director @portablecity.bsky.social. From Barbarian Lord and Hellboy artist @barbarianlord.bsky.social.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

You should totally back this project! It’s got swords! It’s got sorcery! It has cool fantasy art, and fancy dice, and eidolons!

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

A modest proposal: a few years from now, once the big players are “vacationing” in the Netherlands (btw, we went to The Hague & Delft this summer, & loved it!), everyone who voted for this chud & his lickspittles goes on a peace corps apology tour. Just to see what their political nihilism wrought.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

I’m assuming that for Epimas, everyone is following Swords without Master on Kickstarter www.kickstarter.com/projects/unw..., and playing something weird. (Like an RPG made from the little placemat games you find in roadside diners.)

kickstarter.com

Coming soon: Swords Without Master

A ttrpg of strange sorceries, brutal violence and astounding wonder by Epidiah Ravachol.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

A practice illustration for a book project I’m working on. A few years back, I took a road trip around the Pacific Northwest. I was really enamored with the unusual geography of the Oregon coast, which inspired this illustration. All drawn in Affinity Designer on the iPad.

“Dip a Toe in the Briny Deep” An illustration of a seascape. In the distant background are several rounded islands covered in trees. In the middle ground is a boat that looks suspiciously like The Orca from Jaws. In the foreground, a mermaid leans against a rock looking at her phone. There are several seagulls there too, because seagulls are awesome. It’s mostly blues, and greens, with orange and red notes.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Want to increase consumer spending? Want to boost innovation by untethering healthcare from employment? Want to save tax-payer money? Want to treat people with dignity and compassion? If only there was a way to do all of those things... oh wait, there is. Single-payer health care. masscare.org

masscare.org

Mass-Care – Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Will you be the 666th follower of this kickstarter‽ (I like that my computer autocorrects to an interrobang.) It's a really fun game!

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

A 9 pm address to the American people? How many souls of dead psykers will it take to keep him from dozing off mid rambling, racist tangent?

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

I haven’t read this article yet, but I’m assuming it’s a push for single payer healthcare, debt cancellation, and raising the minimum wage.

A screenshot of a Wall Street Journal article, titled “White House Hunts for Ways to Lower the Cost of Living”.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Is anyone going to Arcanecon in Northampton? There are a bunch of cool games I want to check out—hopefully space is still available!

A nebbish man walks to the right (his left), holding a sword in one hand and a torch in the other, trailed by a slime monster with too many eyes.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

It’s the Great Joust. Except one guy is definitely riding a chicken. Drawn in three parts, mostly just to make it entirely unwieldy to work on.

I knight holding a lance in one hand feeds corn to a giant chicken wearing a saddle. What nonsense is this? Is the chicken some sort of fantastic mount? Also there is a young child with a pageboy haircut holding a shield. They’re probably a page. In context that’s pretty obvious. The background is a fantasy tableau of blues and greens, with hints of warmer colors. It’s part one of a triptych.

The middle panel of a triptych. In it, two folks in medieval garb (wimples and pointy hats) are smiling. One holds a laurel, the other a golden circlet. Technically, it’s a white circlet, but only to provide more contrast against the background. They’re surrounded by three pointy dogs. Whippets, or something. I’m not a dogologist, so I kinda just went for comedic effect. In the background is a cartoonish castle of pointy spires, ramparts, and crenellation.

The third part of the triptych. A large knight holds a lance in one hard. Before them is a skinny black horse with jaunty orange decorations in its mane. It looks way too skinny. I sort of drew it as an homage to Mary Blair, so the horse is definitely less than functional. To the knight’s left is also a page holding a shield.

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Reposted by Bryant Paul Johnson

Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Nova Cromlec might be famous for its monsters, but did you know it also has thousands of miles of pristine coastlines, lovely green hills, and charming villages? And monsters. Lots of monsters. Nova Cromlec: coming soon to an inter dimensional portal near you!

Three kids dressed in modern clothing stand in from of a fantasy backdrop: a castle looming over a stepped hill. The kid on the left is stepping through a red portal. He’s dressed like a teenaged metal head, and holds a glowing skeleton key. The kid in the center is wearing a green sweater and slacks. He is holding a backpack with sword sticking out from it. The kid on the right is wearing a red hoodie. She’s holding a spear.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Proselytizing is gamefied empathy. (Sorry, I was just thinking about that so-called Christian dude railing against empathy.)

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Adobe asked me to fill out a survey on AI tools. I’d urge any graphic artists to make it clear that AI tools are bad for everyone. They’re bad for artists who lose revenue. They’re bad for clients who want images that effectively communicate. And they train an audience to expect visual garbage.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

It’s kidlit postcard day! Do you like weird, kinda humorous takes on folklore, fantasy, & whiling away time in offices waiting for the heat death of the universe? Do you think that scarecrows are born, and not made? I’m your guy. This illustration is titled “It’s the Great Eschaton, Charlie Brown”.

Two pumpkin headed figure surround a man in a striped shirt who is staring at a pumpkin hovering in the air. They’re surrounded by an ivy covered stone circle. It’s all very mysterious. Well, not that mysterious. The artist is implying that scarecrows are the result of some sort of dread chthonic ritual, and not just agricultural necessity.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

A bit of good luck for me! ‘Cause I’ve got a golden compass! A mocked up cover for The Golden Compass, or The Northern Lights, if you’re reading this anywhere but in the US. Drawn in Affinity Designer, as mostly vector.

A fan cover of Philip Pullman’s novel “The Golden Compass.” It shows Lyra Belacqua clad in arctic garb running through a snowy forest. In the background is the aurora Borealis. Beside her are a pine marten (Pantalaimon) and a polar bear (Iorek Byrnison).

The same as the previous image, but the title has been changed to “The Northern Lights,” which was the novel’s original title.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

If you see this, post a DC comics cover you love. I’ll admit, I totally ate up the New Mutants/X-Force hype when it came out. Years later, I found this in a dollar bin. It’s amazing all the way through, including the hyperbolic commentary about the various contributors.

The cover to a one-off issue of Doom Patrol parodying the worst excesses of the early ‘90s X-Men era. And drawn by Mike Mignola too.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

If you see this, post a vampire! It’s vector and raster, with a dash of the supernatural. #kidlit

A greenish vampire, (or brykolakis, in the parlance of the youths) is walking by a cemetery at night. It’s wearing an Elizabethan collar, so it’s either 400 years old, or a hipster. And also it has little bat wings, because they’re fun to draw.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Signing up for a block of time at the computer lab, and being able to ignore the “No MUD/MOOs!” sign because you knew the student in charge. Or alternately, queuing up in the library to wait for a terminal to read your various rec.arts.comics newsgroups.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

It’s #portfolioday apparently. (I bought one of those word-a-day calendars, so I was operating under the impression that it was “crepuscular” day. Which means I’m about 11 hours early, on the East Coast.) Anyway, some recent illustrations… and as always, you can find me at bryantpauljohnson.com

A mocked up cover to P.G. Wodehouse’s novel Psmith Journalist. Psmith and Billy Wagner are walking through a slightly seedy New York street watched by a gray cat. Psmith is strolling jauntily, while Billy looks apprehensively about.

A man stands in a pumpkin patch holding a watering can and a hoe. Around him are growing pumpkins. Behind him is a giant menacing jack o-lantern emerging from the soil. It’s all oranges and blues. And it was drawn in June, so seasonally appropriate.

A small boy trails behind an agéd wizard in a fantastic wooded landscape. I mean fantastic in that it depicts a fantasy scene, and not a qualitative descriptor. Though I do like how it turned out. Presumably the small boy is a wizard in training. He does have a short cape on, which might also make him a sidekick.

A scene depicting Merlin standing with young Arthur as he grasps a sword in an anvil. Personally, given how things are going right now, I’d almost rather have a sword-based meritocracy than the cruel whiplash government we have in the US.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

Maybe don’t include obviously AI generated visuals in your high minded LinkedIn posts about the need for ethics in business.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

I don’t believe in an afterlife, but I almost wish I did, just to see the enablers of The World’s Shittiest Theocracy hoist by their own spiritual petards.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

For the cost of his big boy birthday parade, he could have rented 150,000 bouncy castles for four hours. That’s 150 bouncy castles each for everyone who showed up!

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

It’s #kidlipostcard day. You should commission me to draw slyly irreverent versions of classic stories, and/or anything involving weirdos with swords. Represented by Luddington Creative. luddingtoncreative.co.uk

A cartoonish depiction of young Arthur standing in the rain, holding a sword embedded in an anvil. Opposite him is a slightly bedraggled Merlin gesturing questioningly. A word balloon coming from Merlin shows a cartoon icon of a crown. In the background are trees and a blocky castle.

Below it reads “Bryant Paul Johnson, illustrator and cartoonist. Represented by Lucie Luddington at luddingtoncreative.co.uk”

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

I was running through my small, mostly progressive little town, and saw a pickup truck with a sticker on the back window that read, “If you don’t pray, you will be prey.” (Not surprisingly, accompanied by Christian iconography.) You fuckers are the reason we have a first amendment.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

I wasn’t bold enough to be an actual goth, but I did spend a lot of time in my youth combing record shops for gloomy b-sides. Now the gothiest thing about me is the horrifying state of my feet.

A cartoon captioned “[Sadly] True Tales of Running.” A grayscale comic of a bespectacled nerd wearing a vintage Bauhaus Tshirt staring at his black toenails. He’s saying “I learned that today is World Goth Day. So, in honor, I’m going to pretend all my black toenails are a deliberate fashion choice, and not a result of too tight running shoes.”

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Green art! (It turns out, I pretty much only work in three colors: green, blue, and orange. I’m not sure why. (Ironically, my brother actually has a PhD in color science. Good luck trying to convince me that other colors are worthwhile.)

A man is walking holding an umbrella In front of a rainy spring tableau of blue-green plants punctuated with tulips. A young child is standing in the foreground holding a stick, presumably to poke at earthworms. As kids do. Don’t hurt earthworms, they’re super important for healthy soil.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Haunted Pines Summer Camp: come for the arts and crafts, stay for the chthonic evil. And badminton.

Two kids holding badminton rackets (or racquets? I don’t play badminton, so I have no idea which spelling is the right one.) stand in a forest. The girl to the left is swinging her racket at a cute, though probably totally evil bat. The boy on the right is being menaced by a walking skeleton. It’s mostly shades of blue with some red accents.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

I think there's a typo in this headline, Reuters. "UnitedHealth was a reliable earnings performer - until its shocking Thursday results" I fixed it for you: "UnitedHealth leveraged suffering to benefit shareholders. Who would have guessed there would ever be [the faintest whiff of] comeuppance?"

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Coracle Rock: AM soft rock, but with more fiddle and fife.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

One of those silly ideas that manages to escape my sketch book. Reposted for the morning crowd.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Who am I kidding, there’s no way he’d ever play a board game.

A cartoon of the President sitting at a table upon which is set up Catan. He’s saying, “Anyone want to trade? I need wood, wheat, brick, sheep, and stone. I will give you nothing.”

It’s captioned “Grifters of Catan.”

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

I drew this a few years back. Farewell, Nick Rivers.

A cartoonish portrait of Val Kilmer in the move Tombstone. At the top it reads, “Consumptive Emo Cowboy”. At the bottom it reads, “Be the Huckleberry You Want to See in the World”.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Have you ever wondered how many Sliding Doors-style choices it took to divert you from a career as a singing cowboy? Me neither. A self-portrait of me and my trusty steed Malmö. Drawn as vector and raster in Affinity Designer on the iPad.

A portrait of the artist as a singing cowboy. He’s wearing jeans, cowboy boots, one of those button down shirts with the light colored yoke (I don’t know what they’re called—cowboy shirt?) and a ten gallon hat that’s clearly five gallons flat. And a sweet Massachusetts belt buckle. He’s holding a guitar in one hand and doing finger guns with the other. In the background is a small chonky horse, also singing. In the way background is Nauset Light, a famous lighthouse near where the artist grew up. There are also little scrub pines, the official flora of Cape Cod.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

A self portrait inserted into a scene from a favorite series of books. I’ve read the Lord of the Rings several times over the years (I was given the books in the early ‘80s), and yet I mostly only remember the walking around parts.

Two hobbits, trailed by a deranged Gollum tearing into a red cartoon fish, walk past a sign reading “Entering Mordor”. The hobbit in the front (which is actually a self-portrait of the artist), looks pleased with himself. The second hobbit, the Samwise Gamgee in this tableau, is looking back towards Gollum, skeptically. Gollum seems entirely distracted by his fish.

It’s all drawn kinda goofy and cartoony, clearly honoring the gravitas of the source material.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Here’s a pointless hill I’ll die on: “unflipped” manga is bad and dumb, and you’re ruining the artwork by explicitly fighting against the visual narrative as designed by the artist. (Not just manga. Any comics designed for a language that reads right to left.)

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

There’s evil, and then there’s negligent. Silly doodling using fairy tale tropes. Drawn in Affinity Designer. Why is it so much fun to draw layered skirts and ridiculous poofy shoulder pads? And tiny hooded minions?

A single panel comic titled “Fairy-Tale Renovations”.

There are three figures. In the center is a tall, regal woman holding a staff and wearing a crown. To her left is a small figure in a hooded robe with cartoonishly large eyes. To her right is a similarly attired small figure holding a partially opened scroll. They’re speaking to the figure in the center.

“The good news, my Dread Queen, is that we can squeeze four extra dungeons in the basement space. The bad news: we also found knob and tube wiring.”

It’s extra funny because if you ever take a home buyer’s course, or watch any renovation show on TV, you’ll know that knob and tube wiring is the architectural equivalent of a yellow X painted on your door. A plague upon your house. (It’s not really, but insurance companies won’t insure a house that still has it.)

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Any excuse to draw wizards, am I right? All vector for a change.

An old wizard with long hair, and a robe with stars on it (classic wizard style) clutches a steaming mud of something (coffee? tea? a mysterious potion?). He stands in front of a lectern with an open book, and a bunch of tall candlesticks (with open flames). It’s wizard-core at its finest.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Sports are for everyone. This pathetic attack on trans people is nothing more than scapegoating an already marginalized population to score cheap political points. If you actually cared about protecting children, you’d fight like hell for gun control, science based health care, & a social safety net

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

I’m worried about cold and flu season. What’s HHS’s recommendation for when I should start wearing a posset of ivermectin procured from a crone?

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

So, by executive order, the next president could decree that, hypothetically, Mar-a-Lago’s official name is “Abandoned Sewage Overflow Site,” and Google and Apple would totally go along, right?

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

I made a fake cover to one of my favorite childhood books, “The Book of Three,” by Lloyd Alexander. I wanted to do a stylized (maybe mid-century modern?) version. Basically, you should totally hire me to draw silly covers for classic fantasy books.

An homage to one of my favorite books growing up: “The Book of Three,” by Lloyd Alexander. In this fake cover, a giant red-cloaked figure with an antlered skull for a head stands menacingly behind two young people. The person on the left is a tall red-haired woman holding a sword in her left hand, and a glowing golden ball in her right. On the right is a young man holding a sword looking back startled.

There is a blue green background with stylized birch trees.

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Bryant Paul Johnson @bryantpauljohnson.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Quote re-post with yer wings. (It turns out, I draw a lot of seagulls. So instead, something more monstrous!) A voluptuous dragon, intricately rendered.

A chubby red dragon, with comically small wings, hovers over a burning medieval tableau.

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