I had a comic idea ready to go, but Thursday night I had a bout of insomnia that messed me up all day Friday, when I usually work on Jake & Leon while listening to Friday Night Tights on the Nerdrotic YouTube channel. If you don’t I totally understand, but that’s not the point. It’s a good time to work on the comic in the regular style, though comics that need more detailed panels I try to start as soon as I can. Between Friday and Saturday this week (as I had other sleeping issues Saturday) I was kind of lethargic. I couldn’t even really focus on Friday. I did, however and speaking of FNT, make this earlier in the week:
It got me a like from Nerdrotic (I don’t know if Gary runs that) and a retweet from Az. It was one of two boosted things I did, as Instapundit grabbed another of my articles: this time they linked to the article “Does Hollywood Really Have A Fatigue Problem“, which even got some comments from names I don’t usually see and some interesting conversation on Instapundit‘s article link. It’s from the same person who linked to my article on how a reboot won’t save the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sarah Hoyt. Thanks, Sarah!
I probably could have done this week’s comic on Sunday but I need to focus on articles for the week, as another distraction is coming up as my dad’s recover continues. People don’t come for the comic, but it keeps me creative. At least I had the meme. I was also hoping to get back to decluttering for The Clutter Reports but Saturday I was still kind of funky. Hopefully that returns next Sunday. Meanwhile we have the next Chapter By Chapter review installment for Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image, and it should be a one chapter review this week. Whatever else depends on time and what grabs my attention. I would like to build a new buffer of “evergreen” articles that you wouldn’t see unless I needed a break one day, but I’ll be lucky to get the current stuff in for this week.
At any rate, have a great week, everyone.
BW Media Spotlight 
A YouTube Clip Does Not A Movie Make
“Hey, I found a clip of Ironheart fighting a giant fire-breathing gorilla.”
“I saw it. Don’t know the context though.”
“Who cares? Giant fire-breathing gorilla!”
“Yeah, I’m rooting for him, too, but how was he muted from Rocket Raccoon?”
“Does it really matter?”
Yes. Yes it does. Before I go off on the latest stupidity from Marvel Studios I wanted to put this rant together not just for added context but because I might want to refer to it in the future. I’ve mentioned this as a problem with comic writers, but it seems to be worse in movies. I can’t even call it new. Jon Peters wanted to have a giant spider because he saw a documentary about how deadly a predator a spider is. When he couldn’t get Superman to fight it, he got race-swapped Jim West to find it. (The worse crime isn’t Will Smith playing Robert Conrad’s character, it’s replacing Dr. Loveless, a little person recurring villain in the show, with an exaggerated Southern racist jackass stereotype in a steampunk wheelchair. Michael Dunn should be insulted.) Michael Bay probably only took on Transformers to live his dream of cutting a bus in half. (Yes, he actually said he always wanted to film that scene.)
I’m not even going to do my own exaggeration and say something stupid like “the majority of movies out there seem to just be movie clips with a framing device”. The Epic Movie franchise is only that in parody form, because someone decided to make a parody movie franchise out of movie trailers and it’s as dumb as it sounds. That doesn’t mean it isn’t happening, or that other media is doing the same thing. It’s like they’re forming a whole movie around one particular scene they want to make. This is a stupid way to make a movie.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on September 4, 2025 in Movie Spotlight and tagged commentary, movie writing, Short story, writing tips.
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