BW Media Spotlight

examining the art of storytelling

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November 16, 2024

Saturday Night Showcase> Little Nemo: Adventures In Slumberland

Admittedly, this is because I need a post. I already missed last week’s Showcase and the article link earlier today. Of all the annoying distractions that have…let’s just say damaged my 2024 hopes and I won’t bother you with a further venting (yet), this month has been one of the worst and it’s not over yet. So to bring some entertainment into your lives, here’s something I was mildly interested in when I saw it but may be nostalgia for some of you.

Little Nemo In Slumberland was a comic strip by Windsor McCay that ran from 1901-1914 about a boy having some surreal dreams and then waking up in a humorous manner. Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland is a 1989 movie animated by TMS Entertainment (which I’m guessing is how they got it onto their YouTube channel, since it was distributed in theaters by Disney) that tries to expand that into a full-fledged adventure. Nemo must defend his sleeping time playground, after being forced here by the bored princess seeking a playmate, from the Nightmare Realm, where all the bad dreams go.

While not one of TMS’s most known productions, it joins the comic in having a decent following who enjoy the work for what it is. Me, I was entertained but it’s not one of those movies I need to watch again. I didn’t even rewatch this one, so hopefully the recording is in good shape, even if it is TMS’s official channel and posting. All I checked was to see if it was in English. It is. Enjoy.

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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on November 16, 2024 in Animation Spotlight, Comic Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Saturday Night Showcase and tagged animation, anime, Little Nemo, Saturday Night Showcase, TMS Entertainment.

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November 15, 2024

BW Media Spotlight’s Best Of Year 15

I need to double-check my numbering. I’m sure I’m off somewhere. We’re heading into year 16 of the site, but I thought Jake & Leon was heading into year 16 and that started almost a year into this site. Being off by a month is messing with my math. If this is year 16 that should be year 15. If that is year 16 this should be year 17. Shouldn’t it?

November 16th of 2008. Earlier that year I was stuck home recovering from Crohn’s disease causing inflammation that put me in the hospital. Twice. During the first recovery I discovered blogs like Slay Monstrobot Of The Deep, Comic Coverage, Siskoid’s Blog Of Geekery, and others. After the second recovery I realized I was writing comments that were way too long. Clearly I had things to say, as a lover of stories and storytelling and a goal of being one myself.

So it was that BW Media Spotlight, taking the name from my school time fake comic company BW Comics, was born. In recent years I’ve made actual BW Comics content, including a weekly gag comic, some video content, and would love to do more…if I could stop going to the doctor or being sick for long enough. That sounds worse than it is, but the distractions are just really bothering me this year, when I hoped to be a lot more creative than I ended up, not being able to create the workflow I had hoped to by now. I still enjoy doing this site, but there’s more I’d love to do and thus far haven’t been able to.

So it is anniversary time once again, and that means it’s time to go back through a year’s worth of posts, whatever the count is supposed to be. Let’s look at the best of this year’s content, from November 16 of last year through today (the actual anniversary is Saturday, but that’s Saturday Night Showcase time) and pick out my favorite reviews and commentaries through the year.

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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on November 15, 2024 in Uncategorized and tagged best of, BW Media Spotlight.

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November 15, 2024

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Amazing Man Comics #6

I can’t keep critters out of my bathtub, either.

Amazing Man Comics #6

Comic Corporation Of America (October, 1939)

Well, the previous issue was a mixed bag. Honestly I barely remember it. I wonder if that’s a problem with these anthologies? There’s too many stories in one issue, so while some may be better than others, I can’t point to a particular story from a particular issue as a stand-out. One particular “series” might stand out above the others, but not really a story in general thus far. Even with Golden Age Blue Beetle I only remember so much because he shared the comic with other series for the longest time, and when the Silver Age allowed it to have one story an issue they weren’t all that memorable. It’s a lot of flash without a chance to gain any real substance.

With that, let’s check in on our characters from last issue. This would be the second issue of the series thanks to the weird numbering I talked about last time.

[Read along with me here]

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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on November 15, 2024 in Yesterday's Comics and tagged Aman, Amazing Man, Chuck Hardy, Golden Age comics, Iron Skull, Jerry Peterson, Labu, Mighty Man (comics), Minimidget, Sandy Thorne, Slim Bradley, The Shark (Golden Age hero).

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November 15, 2024

BW’s Daily Video> Tomo-Chan Is A Girl In A Nutshell

Catch more from Grimmjack on YouTube

Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on November 15, 2024 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged anime, manga, Tomo-Chan Is A Girl.

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November 14, 2024

Marvel’s Strange Treatment Of Its Black Characters

You know, for a company that wants to give black people someone to cheer for and “see themselves” in (something that I can’t follow because I’ve seen myself in robots, dogs, and things that don’t exist in our world since the surface view of my white butt doesn’t define me), Marvel kind of sucks at it.

First we get Black Panther…and then he dies off-screen so they can replace him with his sister “to honor Chadwick Boseman“, as if Shuri couldn’t be a good character without that branding. Then Sam Wilson is turned into Captain America because the comics and studio both thought Falcon wasn’t a strong character and needed the Captain America branding. Miles Morales gets brought into the main Marvel universe while everyone else in the original Ultimate Universe died for not being a replacement, but despite being in the original Spider-Man universe still tries to use that branding alongside Peter. Sensing a pattern? It’s all about the Name, having the right brand to promote the character…despite much of the MCU’s most popular brands existing for decades in comics and maybe animation, with many more never touched. You ever see Nitro The Exploding Man? Angar The Screamer? Captain Ultra? ANYBODY on this list of obscure characters? With a good enough movie, Frog Man is getting action figures.

Tell me modern Hollywood hasn’t done research by showing me “Left-Winger” and “Right-Winger” against John Walker’s Captain American/US Agent. You know they’d #@$%$ up those characters royally in 2024.

By doing these things, Marvel has weakened the brands they hoped to use to push those characters. Even the marketing calles Miles Morales by his name, not at all (or sometimes alongside the brand) “Spider-Man”, to tell him apart from Peter Parker. Even black people I follow refer to Sam as Falcon, Captain Falcon, Black Captain America, Captain African-American, or something along those lines. Black Panther got drawn into the gender war. Meanwhile, Marvel has a bunch of black heroes wondering when they’re going to get a shot even though they aren’t as highly recognized even among comic fans. Considering what they did to Echo and other Marvel characters, including now blackening Wonder Man in upcoming productions, The answer might be never.

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