Okay, if this is an official posting, which is what Vevo is, can we please stop taking this down? I want this on my Yule Log!
Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter (or possibly multiple chapter for this one) of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.
Last time we saw Commie Op-Center go online…and noticed a few potential flaws that might come into play later.
For all the heck I give the characters at the National Crisis Management Center (regular Op-Center), much of it deserved in the first book, they don’t intentionally let their personal issues affect their work. It’s only when they put their differences aside and worked together that they were any help in the Korean bombing situation of the first novel. Their first responsibility was the defense of the nation and US interests while attempting to prevent a second Korean war, the aim of the villains in the first book.
On the other hand, the St. Petersburg Operations Center, or as I call it “Commie Op-Center”, seems to be all in on putting themselves ahead of the needs of the nation or even the mission, looking out for themselves and their rank/status in order to advance in the military. They have a shared goal, to restore Communist Russia and perhaps the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but while protecting the US is the main goal of our Op-Center characters, our Commie Op-Center characters are putting their personal interests over the main goal. I see this ending badly for them.
In the meantime, we’re off to see that plane flight from the previous chapter and see what importance it has in this Op-Center Cold War.
Chapter 20> Thursday, 3:05 AM, Tokyo
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I hope someone is cleaning up and fixing all these logos.
Prototype #5
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (December, 1993)
“Mission: Moon”
PLOT: Steve Englehart, Tom Mason, & Len Strazewski
WRITERS: Tom Mason, & Len Strazewski
PENCILER: Roger Robinson
INKER: Jeff Whiting
COLORING: Robert Alvord & Family Fugue
LETTERER: Tim Eldred
EDITOR: Roland Mann
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Catch more from Prodigious Saps on YouTube
Never really thought about the game, but it would be nice to see official clarification about the time travel thing. Otherwise it raises a lot of questions like “does that mean Superman doesn’t stop the first missile?”. It wasn’t a very clear way to show Superman breaking the time barrier, which by that point he did in the comics so often it’s not surprising.
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At least everyone else is on time thanks to him.
No Clutter Reports for the rest of December. However, if you’re looking for something to get for your geekier loved ones, I do have comics, toys, and books I’m trying to sell off from my collection. Since I need the money and don’t enjoy them, why not given them a home with someone who will? I’m not selling everything I own, just the stuff that’s become clutter.
Here at BW this week it’s basically more of the same, but hopefully the good same: the next chapter of Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image for Chapter By Chapter, episode 4 of DC Heroes United being reviewed, more with original Star Trek terminology from the writer’s guide, daily old comic reviews and videos, whatever Christmas content I can drop in there, and whatever else I need to finish the week. So some surprises are in there, but I took on a few too many articles series by circumstance. I’ll try to watch that in the future.
I should also note, and this is where we get technical about stuff you might not be interested in but there’s a reason I’m mentioning it, that WordPress, my host, is undergoing some changes that may or may not be obvious on your end but will affect my flow. If it wasn’t for a bookmark in my browser I can’t even access the classic editor on this site, though it’s still easily accessible on The Clutter Reports so it must be a rolling change. That means I’m going to have learn this block editor whether I want to or not. There’s a “classic block” but it isn’t completely the same. I have used the block editor for the BW Comics archive section, but as I learn to use it, there may be some dust to pardon before they drop the regular classic editor altogether. If something looks off, now you know why. Also need to look into a new theme since this one is so old they don’t maintain it and who knows how long it will stay available. Need to find as many of the same features I have with my current one. And to think, in the early days of this site I changed themes a few times.
That’s enough of all that. Have a great week, everybody.
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Originally I started Captain Yuletide because I hadn’t seen any “X saves Christmas” stories out of modern kids entertainment, and that’s if they even did a Christmas episode and didn’t just call it “holidays”. It’s also why I started the Christmas special playlist, to find specials that call Christmas…Christmas. To make a series out of it I thought it would be fun to use the various Christmas traditions and lore to form my characters and plots. I kind of miss doing that this year.
So to make up for it, I bring you The Curious Case Of Santa Claus, a 1982 documentary about the origins of Santa Claus, though they missed the part US advertising played in the more famous depiction of Santa. Since this is a storytelling blog, I’m happy a story is included via the framing device for this history lesson of Saint Nicholas.
It’s Christmas Eve and Santa (James Coco) is having a bit of an identity crisis as he tries to figure out all his various depictions. He gets help by talking to a therapist (Jon Pertwee, or the Third Doctor to us Whovians) in New York, because New York is just where Kris Kringle goes to sort his identity issues. Through telling his story to the therapist, can Santa Claus piece together who he is and what he means to the holiday?
While this is a British production, I first saw this on A&E back when it was about Arts And Entertainment, rather than the reality dump it is today. It’s where I learned about Santa around the world, and while it doesn’t cover everything it is a good introduction to the expanded world of Saint Nicholas and Father Christmas…who apparently aren’t the same person according to this story. Enjoy.
BW Media Spotlight 
BW’s Saturday Article Link> What Caused The Current Comic Crash
Comics as a medium survived Fredrick Wertham and an incompetently enforced Comics Code. The rise of stores that only sold comics and comics related merchandise should be evidence of that. Recently, however, comic stores either had to build beyond that or go out of business, and the industry is in freefall while the emperor dusts off the fiddle. Activism and the current pecking order are only partly to blame. Writing for Brian Neumeier’s Kairos blog we have this commentary by Soul Cycle Books going over how comics started making mistake after mistake and have slowly reduced the industry to a shadow of what it once was and I think he nails it perfectly.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on December 14, 2024 in Comic Spotlight and tagged comic books, comics, commentary.
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