And he spoke: "I expanded his mind." - or in my case: "her mind"

If I were to count my Manga, I’d most likely reach a respectable amount of around 400 to 500 volumes (not counting volumes like Daisuki or the “shonen” counterpart Banzai) – I don’t know the precise number though, after all I’m not a fan of Maths and numbers *laughs*. Some of my favorites are Kentaro Miuara’s Beserk, as well as Tomoko Hayakawa’s The Wallflower / Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge. (I can’t wait for the next volume of both D: ).

Manga simply are inspiring to me – though I may not be as skilled (and especially not as ambitious and fast) in drawing Manga (as you can see if you take a look at my doujinshi >>; ), but I still admire those artists  who CAN draw Manga so well and I like losing myself in their stories. If you ask me, Manga can be just as well told as modern or classic best sellers with plain text. And movies as well, are no rival to Manga, especially since sometimes Manga seem to me as though they’re storyboards on their own, in a way. So yes, it’s not surprising that seeing me with a Manga in my hands is a rather common sight.

Although I also have some non-Japanese works in my shelves, as for example the first volume of the Castle Graphic novel from Marvel (based on the TV series Castle with Nathan Fillion, a show I like a lot xD) or one volume of a Marvel / Top Cow crossover  (I bought this many years ago at an airport so I’d have something to read during my flight to Rome), but aside of these I never really looked into American Comics. I simply had no reason to, you know? Sure, I liked movies like X-Men and I enjoyed watching Teen Titans as a child, but I never really had a big interest in going further into the matter. Neither Marvel, nor DC, nor any other publisher really was that enticing to me.

This began to change about a year ago, slowly, but surely.
My brother told me about the movie Thor, the film adaption of Marvel’s famous works and he claimed I was probably going to like Loki. Sure, I wondered why he said that – was it simply because I generally like “villains”, as well as in games, books or movies? He didn’t tell me why though and as I then finally watched Thor, I realized at once: damn, he’s right o_o. Loki really was rather... Tempting. >///<
Still though, this wasn’t quite yet when my interest in him and in Marvel started. Even though he started to kind of “follow” my life a bit, because as my brother played the Lego Version of Marvel on his Playstation in the end of 2013, I often watched him and yes – there I saw Loki again. It was funny and I had to laugh a lot, because the way he was portrayed in this game was just as silly and amusing, as it was cute as well.

At the same time my brother and I often discussed superheroes during dinner and we had fun giving our father a hard time with questions like “Dad, Batman! Is he from DC or Marvel?”. Though the relationship between my brother and me is usually kind of...tense and not as harmonic as I’d wish (if I tell you it’s a bit like between Loki and Thor, that tells you everything, right?), the talk about superheroes – and villains – at least gave us a basis to get along. (...As long as no one start’s the discussion who’s better, Thor or Loki, because there our opinions differ GREATLY. He’s all like “Thor!” and I’m like “LOKI! D<” xDD)
At Christmas eve, while our parents attended church, my brother and I even watched  a movie together: Iron Man 2. We talked about Tony Stark & the others as though we were some kinds of experts. But waiiit... Experts? Yeah sure... Not quite.

I never had even read a single volume of Iron Man – that’s the same as though I’d say “Oh sure, Lord of the Rings is awesome” without having read the books, merely basing my judgement on the movies (SERIOUSLY >o< I hate it when people do that! Go and read the books, people! They’re amazing!!). And to be honest? If you had told me about Iron Man before the movie I’d have most likely said “A Robot guy? Yaaaaaawn. Spare me with Mechas, that’s boring.” – but I don’t know why, I liked the movie. Iron Man was somehow... Different. It was new to me.
On the one hand it may be because of the character Tony Stark himself – he’s such an a-- uhm, such an arrogant guy, and yet there’s something rather lovable about him (I wonder if I’d also think that way if he wasn’t acted by Robert Downey Jr. xD That I like him is obvious, at least ever since Christmas, hm?). But on the other hand it’s also because of Pepper – I’m usual sceptical when it comes to female characters, but she’s just great. I love how she always counters Tony’s smug comments and how she still loves him, although he’s such a jerk at times X3 They sure make a cute couple. 

But yeah – I don’t know why... I just like Iron Man for these reasons and for more reasons that I cannot even name.

Again some months passed and after my brother and I watched the third (and last? D: hopefully not!) Iron Man movie, it kind of bugged me that there were parts of the movie I only half understood – see, I didn’t watch Avengers yet, so I was missing some background information needed to understand Tony’s trauma (and all those allusions and flashback scenes in the movie). Though my brother tried to tell me abut it, that wasn’t enough for me... So what did I do? I ordered the Blu-ray of Avengers and holy Chocobos... That’s how I sealed my fate. Couldn’t my brother have warned me that Loki is so damn... He’s... Uhm... Well... Loki is rather... He... >//////<
Waaah! Can it be possible?! I’m at a loss for words (or rather, I want to avoid saying “attractive” X//D *laughs and blushes*). Oh well, let’s just say he’s „insanely smart and incredibly good looking“ “insanely smart and incredibly good looking” to put it in his own words.

To make things short: I already knew, ever since I had watched Thor, that I liked Loki, but ever since I own the Blu-ray of Avengers now, I keep watching it over and over – oh and sometimes I only watch the scenes with Loki >////>. It won’t surprise you to hear that it didn’t take long until I ordered the first Thor movie as well, right? (Just because of Loki X//D) And of course I also pre-ordered the second movie (yay, it’ll be published next week, this means I can watch more Loki scenes, yay! <3). Ever since then I’m all “Loki here, Loki there, Loki everywhere.”

And why is that? Because of Tom!

Tom Hiddleston, the talented actor who’s playing the role of Loki, is simply the best choice they could have made for Loki. It’s rare for me to see an actor who plays his role so convincingly that I really get the feeling he IS his character and not merely acting. I mean seriously... I get the chills and get all teary-eyed whenever I see the scene in Thor 1 in which Loki confronts Odin about the truth he found out about himself  >////<. When Tom then yells “Tell me!” he’s so much “in character” there, it’s scary. That scene touches my heart every time T_T And I mean, I heard about good actors being really “in character” before, but I’ve never seen something as incredible as Tom’s acting. He makes the whole scenes with Loki feel “real”.
But yes... Tom is a fantastic actor. His voice and the way he moves captivates me and whenever there’s a scene with him, I pause whatever I’ve been doing  aside of watching the movie and I stare at the sceen, as though I was under some kind of spell.

In that text I also mentioned some drawings that I made: studies of Tom (based on some screencaps) to practice drawing Loki. Although I usually don’t like drawing real people, it’s...Different with him. I like drawing him and I smile as though I’m dreaming whenever I see a picture of him – and that although I usually always feel so awkward when I have to look people into their eyes, even on photos... But that isn’t the case with him, I like seeing him.

And I like seeing Loki – to return to the topic of this article. But I wanted to see more than just the movies – I wanted to KNOW more. It isn’t enough to me to only know the movies... So what did I do? Simple – I visited a nice comic book store in Bonn and bought Marvel’s Thor Season One.  I haven’t read it yet, but I’m already excited, simply because I own it now! And I am certain this won’t be the only volume I own – I’m planning to buy more works of Marvel and of Thor.
This isn’t all, though! I also want to look more into the matter of comics in general: how to plan a comic, how to draw it, how to ink it... Yes, I want to expand my artistic horizon, so to speak. Or to put it in a different way: when Black Widow asked Loki in Avengers about Agent Barton, he said: “I expanded his mind” and that’s what Loki also did with me *giggles*.

I even tried to invent my own Marvel OC *laughs* of course she’s a villain, but you already expected that, didn’t you? And I tried to ink her the way it would look as though she comes from a Comic – would you like to see it? You can, if you like! I’ll be showing a WIP picture of her here, along with the studies I made of Tom Hiddleston *giggles* X//3
 

Tell me what you think, okies?

Oh and one more thing: I might make an update somewhen next week – again with more drawings, so stay tuned! :3

The drawings: