“Yesterday’s” Comic> Alien Bounty Hunter #1

Nobody told him not to ride his motorcycle in the house.

Alien Bounty Hunter #1

Vault Comics (July, 2017)

STORY: Stephen Levinson (creator) & F.J. Desanto

WRITERS: Adrian Wassel & David Boother

ARTIST: Nick Robles

LETTERER: Deron Bennett

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BW’s Daily Video> The Savage Land Rogue Debate

Catch more from Casually Comics on YouTube

 

Should The Marvel Cinematic Universe Be Rebooted Or Destroyed?

Ever since Disney took over Marvel, which they wanted for the movie studio and not the comics since they’ve bungled that up and had other publishers doing some of their properties that weren’t pre-existing contracts, the franchise has gone downhill. The writing and adaptation have fallen apart, the social pandering is more and more obvious, and the lack of interest in the source material that their movies wouldn’t exist without by the people making those movies is all on display and has hurt the very brand they sought to use. Amazing what happens when you look at the popularity of the brand name and ignore why it’s popular in favor of your own biases, isn’t it?

This has led some in the fandom to just call for a reboot. Even Film Theory under both MatPat and current host Lee have suggested it. Supposedly, Marvel Studios are one reboot away from saving Marvel movies…except it won’t. Reboots do nothing to address the actual problems with Marvel Studios, Disney, Marvel Comics, the MCU, or anything else that has led Disney’s Marvel away from what made Marvel Studios so good when they were making movies on their own and distributing through Paramount or Universal. There’s also a call to just stop making MCU material in theaters and Disney+, a similar call being made for the Star Wars franchise that has also suffered under Bob Iger’s continued destruction and desecration of Walt Disney’s legacy.

Let’s go over this idea fairly, though. Superhero fans want to save the movies, but will killing the MCU in favor of a new Marvel movieverse fix things? To properly showcase the frustrations of the superhero movie fans I bring you the following video by commentator and indie filmmaker JesterBell. Watch as she vents her issues currently with the direction the MCU has taken and tries to convince us that a either reboot or total shutdown is the solution, with the upcoming Fantastic Four movie as the best place to do a Flashpoint style remaking of the universe. We agree on the problems, but I’m not convinced this is going to help. It might even make the problem worse.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Sonic The Hedgehog #81

The problem with these pin-up cover is they give me so little to work with OR promote the story inside.

Sonic The Hedgehog #81

Archie Comics Publications (April, 2000)

COLORIST: Frank Gagliardo

EDITOR: J. F. Gabrie

Sonic The Hedgehog: “City Of Dreams”

WRITER: Karl Bollers

PENCILER: James Fry

INKERS: Andrew Pepoy & Nelson Ribeiro

LETTERER: Jeff Powell

Knuckles The Echidna: “All You Need Is A Bit Of Chaos

WRITER: Ken Penders

PENCILER: Steven Butler

INKER: Pan Eklund

LETTERER: Vickie Williams

Amy Rose: “A Rose Plucked”

WRITER: Karl Bollers

PENCILER: Chris Allan

INKER: Harvey Mercadoocasio

LETTERER: Jeff Powell

All but the editor credits come from the Grand Comics Database, since the credits page just has a bunch of last names or Harvey’s nickname, “Harvo”.

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BW’s Daily Video> What American Comics Can Learn From Manga

Catch more from Youngrippa59 on YouTube and see him put his words into action at the Rippaverse

I’ll challenge one idea: that younger readers aren’t important. You have to get older readers interested in comics, and kids are getting so little media now compared to older audiences outside of cartoons usually written by people who look down on kids entertainment (especially the preschool and elementary school age kids) and think they can be lazy about it. Kids know when they’re being talked down to and when adults are trying to think on their actual level, and comics have mostly treated them like idiots or unwanted. Comics I read as a kid now contain stuff I wouldn’t show to a kid the same age I was when I started reading comics.

Meanwhile, there are no action and superhero shows for older kids. It jumps from age five to maybe mid teens. Kids love superheroes and there’s plenty of evidence on the internet showing that, but show me a superhero story in comics or television/streaming for them. It’s a short list compared to when I was growing up, where I had more options than I knew what to do with in action and superhero entertainment safe for if not targeted to my age group. We need to get kids these entertainment options in animation and in comics, and we shouldn’t leave them behind under the foolish belief that will convince people that comics aren’t for kids by kicking them out entirely.

In the end, comic creators need to love what they do and be willing to promote it and demonstrate that comics are for everyone of every age group and interest. That’s something Japan knows and the US forgot when they got rid of the Comics Code and decided they could do whatever they want rather than what the customers want.

The Fallacy Of “Media Literacy”

Sorry, folks, but once again I’m forced to deal with the culture war and how it affects storytelling and how we discuss storytelling.

The Urban Dictionary has, as of this writing, three definitions for “media literacy

[1] Media Literacy describes the act of being capable of handling different forms of media and being competent,critical and literate. It means being in control of what to interpret into things we see or hear and believing everything right away.
Media literacy is about helping people to become more competent with what they see/hear etc in the media and be critical about it.

by JetBlackColors September 1, 2015


[2] A term for critical thinking used by people who learned everything they know from video essays on YouTube.

Getting a joke is media literacy. Being good at Zelda is media literacy. Seeing this post is media literacy

by Cranes June 21, 2023


[3] A @#$#% buzzword thrown around by pseudo-intellectual Reddit and Twitter users when parroting their unoriginal analyses of movies, games, tv shows, etc. that they stole from their favorite E-celeb on YouTube. They use it to insist that the #$%#$% goyslop they consume is more profound than it really is in order to make themselves appear like intellectuals and farm upvotes on Reddit and/or likes+retweets on Twitter from other impressionable retards who read their posts.

A: “If you realized why Ellie let Abby go at the end of The Last of Us Part II, then congratulations on having basic media literacy.”
B: “@#$%# off you pretentious @#$%$#%…”
by wtrbrth March 2, 2024

The sad thing official dictionary sites and Wikipedia will tell you the first one is accurate. In truth, or at least in practice, the second definition is the more accurate while the third one is just angry, though I have to agree with it. “Media literacy” is the new buzzword used by the usual suspects to push back against people who disagree with their reading of a text or program. “You don’t think this story is solely about [insert social cause du jour] here then you clearly lack media literacy.” This statement is made by people younger than I’ve been absorbing stories to sound smart in the hopes of silencing critics. It hasn’t worked, but it has ruined the discussion. It’s another of the dividing words in current story discussion, and it’s time to discuss this foolishness.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Judomaster #95

“Captain America didn’t have to put up with this evil counterpart nonsense.”

Judomaster #95

Charlton Comics Group (June, 1967)

“The Plot To Destroy Judomaster”

WRITER/ARTIST/LETTERER: Frank McLaughlin

Sarge Steel: “File 112: Case Of The Village Moneyman”

WRITER: Steve Skeates

ARTIST: Dick Giordano

LETTERING: A Machine

[Read along with me here]

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