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rj.gumption.fun
Ryan
@rj.gumption.fun
80 followers 140 following 51 posts
He/Him
Cartoonist and museum educator.

https://gumption.fun
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rj.gumption.fun
Ryan @rj.gumption.fun · May 21
My latest comic, The Messenger, is out now on itch!
It's 25 pages, black and white. Best comic I've made so far.

It's about a young man named Isaiah who accepts a mysterious position in his town's church. His younger brother has concerns.

Get it here:
rjgumption.itch.io/the-messenger
rj.gumption.fun
A Paradise Built in Hell (by Solnit, the poster im quote-skeeting) was probably the most impactful book I read last year because it has so many morsels like this in it. I bring it up almost weekly- it stays relevant particularly for Californians. Cannot recommend it enough.
rebeccasolnit.bsky.social Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 2d
My position on taking action. And on the important space between everything and nothing.
And everything is flawed, if you want to look at it that way. The analogy that has helped me most is this: in Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of boat-owners rescued people—single moms, toddlers, grandfathers—stranded in attics, on roofs, in flooded housing projects, hospitals, and school buildings. None of them said, I can’t rescue everyone, therefore it’s futile; therefore my efforts are flawed and worthless, though that’s often what people say about more abstract issues in which, nevertheless, lives, places, cultures, species, rights are at stake. They went out there in fishing boats and rowboats and pirogues and all kinds of small craft, some driving from as far as Texas and eluding the au- thorities to get in, others refugees themselves working within the city. There was bumper-to-bumper boat-trailer traffic—the celebrated Cajun Navy—going toward the city the day after the levees broke. None of those people said, I can’t rescue them all. All of them said, I can rescue someone, and that’s work so meaningful and important I will risk my life and defy the authorities to do it. And they did.
December 13, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Ryan
papapishu.bsky.social
Palantir used to have affinity groups and DEI as late as 2022, and I had the logos saved on my phone because they pissed me off so much and of course they buried those pages. But I never forgot.
June 20, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by Ryan
jfruh.bsky.social
ME FOR THE LAST EIGHT YEARS: look, i know it's a useful shorthand, but i don't think there's any such thing as a literal "epstein list" in the sense of a list of names
JEFFREY EPSTEIN, IN AN EMAIL TO HIMSELF:
November 13, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Reposted by Ryan
jayvanbavel.bsky.social
Engagement-based #algorithms amplify intergroup hostility + moral-emotional content, leading it to be overrepresented in your feed

This leads us to falsely perceive that people want to see this kind of content and share more of it.

This technology fuels false polarization: osf.io/preprints/os...
November 4, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Ryan
lswisnom.bsky.social
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
rj.gumption.fun
got out of a karen bass town hall that I only knew about because of a flyer someone posted near my work. Dawg. this woman does not know what is happening in her own city. Several questions were met with a Mike Johnson style "I'd have to look into that." All authoritative answers from outside experts
November 4, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Reposted by Ryan
catacalypto.bsky.social
I think about this LeGuin essay a lot. (link in next post; you should read it too.)
Its technology is how a society copes with physical reality: how people get and keep and cook food, how they clothe themselves, what their power sources are (animal? human? water? wind? electricity? other?) what they build with and what they build, their medicine — and so on and on. Perhaps very ethereal people aren’t interested in these mundane, bodily matters, but I’m fascinated by them, and I think most of my readers are too. Technology is the active human interface with the material world. But the word is consistently misused to mean only the enormously complex and specialised technologies of the past few decades, supported by massive exploitation both of natural and human resources. This is not an acceptable use of the word. “Technology” and “hi tech” are not synonymous, and a technology that isn't “hi,” isn’t necessarily '“low” in any meaningful sense. We have been so desensitized by a hundred and fifty years of ceaselessly expanding technical prowess that we think nothing less complex and showy than a computer or a jet bomber deserves to be called “technology” at all. As if linen were the same thing as flax — as if paper, ink, wheels, knives, clocks, chairs, aspirin pills, were natural objects, born with us like our teeth and fingers — as if steel saucepans with copper bottoms and fleece vests spun from recycled glass grew on trees, and we just picked them when they were ripe... One way to illustrate that most technologies are, in fact, pretty “hi,” is to ask yourself of any manmade object, Do I know how to make one?
October 27, 2025 at 10:26 PM
rj.gumption.fun
el froggylado
dannykpolitics.bsky.social Danny K @dannykpolitics.bsky.social · Oct 6
WATCH: ‘Portland Frog’ pepper balled by ICE agents
October 13, 2025 at 3:53 AM
Reposted by Ryan
minovskyarticle.bsky.social
The Vinland Saga artist seems as cool as you'd hope he'd be.
shineyezehuhh.bsky.social Isaiah D. Colbert @shineyezehuhh.bsky.social · Oct 7
Also, Makoto Yukimura said trans rights.
io9: Your portrayal of Indigenous and transgender characters—like the Lnu tribe and Cordelia—stands out in a media landscape where such representation is still rare outside of series like Golden Kamuy, Skip and Loafer, and Paradise Kiss, where they’re often mishandled. What impact do you hope these characters have on expanding the narrative terrain? How do you see your storytelling challenging the ethnocentric lens that dominates much of mainstream media when it comes to that representation? Yukimura: I did have written characters in [Vinland Saga] from a marginalized ethnic group [and] who are LGBTQ featured here. I actually wanted to portray a character with a disability in the story, too. However, because of the setting, I really couldn’t find the right place to incorporate such a character into the story. One thing I really don’t understand, though, is why do people attack such folks? Is it because they’re different? Why do they just focus on bad things about these groups and generalize them? I truly don’t understand why people do such things. I plainly feel sad when it comes to the way people treat each other. To me, it’s quite normal for people to have uniqueness. It’s almost needless to say that we all individually have a uniqueness that might be considered different than what is the majority. For example, I grew up in an era where higher education was considered to be the most important thing in society in Japan. You almost had no paths in life outside of that structure. I actually do live outside of that structure, and I’m living perfectly fine. I really want to say that uniqueness is okay. I don’t understand why people are making those judgments to say, “This is okay, but this is not okay.” I haven’t really thought about what this type of storytelling or character would have an impact on society at all. I’m just writing, drawing, and portraying society as I see it and what I think is normal from my eyes in the manga. If people don’t agree with that version of what I think is a normal society, then oh well. (Laughs) That’s too bad. Those people don’t have to read my manga.
October 7, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Ryan
magicalgurll.com
hi i have a collection of resources, including layout templates requiring minimal html knowledge + guides that will teach you that minimum, on my own indie web page. god please make an indie website
Fairytale
Courtney's home on the indie web.
fairytale.magicalgurll.com
October 7, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Reposted by Ryan
scottmccloud.bsky.social
Written 55 years ago, Schulz's heartfelt clarity cuts through the noise, even today.

h/t @tisserand.bsky.social
Scan of a typed letter from 1970, from Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, addressed to "Joel Lipton, 622 N. Foothill Road, Beverly Hills, Calif. 90210" It reads: "Dear Joel: I think it is more difficult these days to define what makes a good citizen than it has ever been before. Certainly all any of us can do is follow our own conscience and retain faith in our democracy. Sometimes it is the very people who cry out the loudest in favor of getting back to what they call "American Virtues" who lack this faith in our country. I believe that our greatest strength lies always in the protection of our smallest minorities. Sincerely yours, Charles M. Schulz" At bottom is an illustration of Charlie Brown and Snoopy, a kite wrapped around the dog house.
October 2, 2025 at 6:11 PM
rj.gumption.fun
watching this pete buttigieg interview and I keep getting struck with how he handles questions like a consultant, not like a leader. he doesn't have a position on zohran or gaza, but says that he sees that support and the party needs to be listening more. mckinsey roots showing through
Pete Buttigieg Interview
YouTube video by Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan
www.youtube.com
October 2, 2025 at 2:27 AM
rj.gumption.fun
Binging XOXO talks was a great way of keeping myself entertained during the sloggier parts of art school.
danhon.com Dan Hon @danhon.com · Sep 27
A reminder that you can always check out eight years worth of video from XOXO Festival, steadfastly and defiantly held in the war-torn city of Portland, Oregon.

xoxofest.com/videos/
Video Archive · XOXO
XOXO was an experimental festival for independent artists who live and work online.
xoxofest.com
September 27, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Ryan
ssnowsball.bsky.social
Jean Cocteau Le Livre Blanc (1930) ink on paper
September 21, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Reposted by Ryan
scottmccloud.bsky.social
Gentle reminder that in the late '50s, the U.S. government did not censor comics. Comics companies censored themselves.

Not sure why that crossed my mind today but there it is...
September 19, 2025 at 1:18 AM
rj.gumption.fun
this week's events continue to validate my belief that anything published by the opinion section of a newspaper is not worth reading.
September 17, 2025 at 8:30 PM
rj.gumption.fun
I think there's a lot of people who still think about politics primarily as what rhetoric you agree the most with. Which (while flawed) was a tenable way of navigating US political conversations for most of the 20th century. Klein appears to think that that framework is universal and "true."
ezrakleinbot.bsky.social Ezra Klein @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social · Sep 17
"Much of what I would describe as Kirk's worst moments were now just standard fair MAGA Republicanism. And the leader of MAGA Republicanism is the President of the United States...we are going to have to live here with each other believing what we believe. Disagreeing in the ways we disagree."
September 17, 2025 at 8:11 PM
rj.gumption.fun
The depreciation of NYT as a reliable source has meant that I'm turning to more sources to get the same sense of the world. My current rotation includes The Guardian, The Verge, LAist, Hong Kong Free Press, Defector and the Comics Journal. Obviously there's still some blind spots
September 12, 2025 at 6:31 AM
rj.gumption.fun
It feels like major publishers still have not developed an immune response to comicsgate/gamergate campaigns, and it's a symptom of weak leadership. If you're in charge of something that people have unhealthy opinions about, you gotta be able to find signal amidst noise.
September 12, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Reposted by Ryan
iamdavidbrothers.com
this is soft, dude. this is really, really soft.
a few years back, Frank Tieri threatened another critic and myself with violence, directly, at a comic-con over Batman opinions. That dude kept his job. He slid into my DMs with a fake apology.
C. Kirk called for extermination. A joke didn't kill him.
September 11, 2025 at 5:39 AM
rj.gumption.fun
Writing alt text may be a great natural-seeming way for students to develop close-looking skills. Because they start with the assumption that the viewer cannot see the image, they're forced to actually describe the visual evidence in front of them.
September 8, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Ryan
samhenri.gold
Did you know your MacBook has a sensor that knows the exact angle of the screen hinge?

It’s not exposed as a public API, but I figured out a way to read it and make it sound like an old wooden door.
September 6, 2025 at 8:44 PM
rj.gumption.fun
@mikerugnetta.com sending this your way in case you haven't seen this yet. If the chill zone returns, may be a fun addition to the synth setup.
www.theverge.com/news/773352/...
Pocket Scion is a synth you play with plants
The $149 instrument was made in collaboration with viral musician Modern Biology.
www.theverge.com
September 6, 2025 at 11:30 PM
rj.gumption.fun
"By 2005, the pages where editors stipulated policy and debated articles were found to be growing faster than the articles themselves. Today, this administrative backend is at least five times the size of the encyclopedia it supports"

www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
Wikipedia is under attack — and how it can survive
The site’s volunteers face threats from Trump, billionaires, and AI.
www.theverge.com
September 6, 2025 at 8:25 PM