I didn’t get to add any more Christmas specials to my playlist beyond the ones I posted this year. Also didn’t get to do anything else special for Christmas because the week started out distracting. Par for the course this year. I wanted to at least wish you all a Merry Christmas. I’ll be back before the New Year.
Me, either, but Jake looks like he’s a fan.
Not being able to get a Captain Yuletide done this year, and needing a story for this year’s Jake & Leon Christmas story, things came together for me. At least I get to draw the elves. I even grabbed the unnamed elf from the first issue of Captain Yuletide that just chides Mitch for liking robots, and finally gave him a name (say hi to Mort) since I finally named those two guys from the comic store. This time he’s bothering poor Zek. There will be one more next week.
This week I have a doctor’s appointment and then there’s Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, where I’m not expecting a lot of readers. So while I may get some more Christmas songs, specials, and episodes onto the various YouTube playlists, and then post them here, I won’t be doing anything the rest of the week for my usual Christmas hiatus. That’s why I did the latest installment of DC Heroes United earlier today, so I don’t fall behind on that show. Maybe I’ll do some stuff for the future but no posts will be going up until next Monday. Enjoy time with your family or check out the years worth of old posts. Have a Merry Christmas, or whatever you celebrate, or just have a great week. We’ll be back together sooner than you want think.
Since I’m taking Christmas week off, I didn’t want to have to play catch-up. So here’s an extra article.
So it turns out no, this episode doesn’t come off as a part 2 of the previous episode, just another chapter of the ongoing story.
“Fear, Interrupted” contains very little fear. One of the characters shares his (or her, no spoilers in the intro) fear, and outside of what impact the choice of who shares is…not a whole lot changes. The only real changes thus far are minor story beats, not a huge difference in events. There are limits to this story’s format that make me less interested in seeing what the Batman Telltales games were like not because of the cliffhanger but because none of the choices have a major impact on events. At best it affects character relationships, but that’s not as exciting since I’m here on the sidelines watching the action. Even if I were playing I doubt I’d feel like my choices mattered a whole lot. It’s actually kind of disappointing.
Luckily the episodes themselves have been interesting, and as someone examining storytelling it is interesting to see how the losing choices would have altered character relationships, but it does nothing about the real meat of the story. I’m still enjoying the story, and there’s a lot to talk about with this episode, though when it comes to the choices this round it feels even less like they affect the narrative and more a meta interest in the story. I won’t even be doing the regular choice analysis format like usual most of the time, and you’ll see why very quickly. First, let’s watch the episode.
While I never got into Boy Meets World outside of the occasional episode, Girl Meets World seemed to draw me in more. The Disney Channel series follows Riley Matthews, daughter of Corey and Topanga. Before everyone needed to have a daughter (and they do have a son), what would you call it if focused on younger brother Auggie? Another Boy Meets World? In this case, focusing on the daughter opened the door to new stories, and while characters from the original show would show up (one of Riley’s friends is the son of one of Cory’s friends), none of Riley’s crew is a replacement for the original. You can enjoy both shows and see the torch passed on. You know, what Star Wars should have done, but right.
To finish this year’s Christmas offerings I am able to bring you the episode “Girl Meets A Christmas Maya”. (Too bad the original show didn’t think of that title meme. It works really well.) Riley’s best friend Maya is having her first Christmas with her mom and Corey’s best friend Shawn, who is dating Maya’s mom at this point in the series. Sadly, he doesn’t appear in the episode. The subplot involves Riley trying to get her friends into the spirit of Ecret Anta (that will make sense when you watch the episode…I’m allergic to pain). Will it be a merry Christmas? Watch and find out. Enjoy, and I hope you have one, even if you don’t celebrate the holiday.
Originally titled Li’l Folks, Charles “Sparky” Schultz’s classic newspaper comic strip Peanuts became a huge sensation, boosted by TV holiday specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas, which forever tied them to the season thanks to Linus’ reading from Luke 2:8-14. In honor, the BBC put out an article honoring Schultz and his famous characters.
However, I’m posting this mere days before Christmas, so here’s a bonus article from The Conversation about how the special was made. I guess being almost last minute actually benefited it, as that animation style would go on to be how the Peanuts have been depicted even when they made the jump to 3D CG.
I was hoping to end this year’s Christmas articles on some big commentary about Christmas productions. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch Die Hard to finally answer that age old question officially (unofficially I still say no–Jesus’ birthday should not include a body count!), and it turns out I already discussed why you can’t turn How The Grinch Stole Christmas into a feature-length production. No need to repeat myself when I have years worth of articles to point to. As for anything else, I got woken up early this morning and it threw my timing off for the day, requiring a nap this afternoon. Thus I am forced to go with a video filler, but I did find something good enough to run with.
I do enjoy Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Speaking of old articles I chronicled my search for my favorite take, some of them are in my Christmas special playlist, and last year things aligned where I could review the original book for Chapter By Chapter. I do recommend reading it and being in public domain it’s easy to find posted online. While not my top favorite, The Muppet Christmas Carol is a very fun take on the classic book, and surprisingly close to the original book while inserting classic Muppets humor. This was shortly after Disney’s acquisition, back when they still cared about the things they made.
What I found while running around is this video by YouTube channel Reel History. The host considers this his favorite take, and uses it to check the historical accuracy of the movie and the original book. You’ll learn some interesting trivia about A Christmas Carol, the period it’s set in, and the movie itself along the way.
“Hey, my mother-in-law is down there. Drops the bombs!”
Popular Comics #44
Dell Publishing Company (October, 1939)
I was kind of hoping to hit at least one Christmas comic by the end of the year, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. We’ll be doing our own version of Christmas 2 (if you get that reference, kudos) or Christmas In July. I can, however, stick it to our old “friend” Fredric Wertham. This comic has a contest that encourages you to read a regular book to answer questions to enter. It’s a cheap way to promote a novel, but if it works, why not? A bunch of kids read a book and some kid got $1,500…which they probably spent on comic books.
The Clutter Reports (my other site) Atop The Fourth Wall Crisis On Earth Prime Lean Into Artcast Bully Says “Comics Oughta Be Fun” Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery
Cartoon Hero’s Lair SF Debris Four Million Years Later
BW Media Spotlight 