BW Media Spotlight

examining the art of storytelling

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April 5, 2025

BW’s Saturday Article Link> The Old Looney Tunes Studio To Go Boom

He’s going to have an awful headache in the morning.

While not the original “Termite Terrace” (that was taken down in 1940), the studio which later housed the Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies creators is now scheduled to be torn down. Not because it was condemned like the original (it earned that name for a reason) but to make room for more HBO studio space. As the linked-to article notes, it hasn’t been used as an animation studio for years. Warner Brothers Animation operates elsewhere. Still, many Bugs and Daffy fans are upset because of its place in history. I suspect all of the other odd decisions David Zaslav has made regarding their animation library and new creations (I remind you that Warner Brothers Discovery has arguably the largest animation library on the planet) has them riled up.

I don’t see them making it into a Looney Tunes museum or something, and it hasn’t been a historic anything in years. It’s not even the original building the cartoons started in. I’m more bothered with how they treat the stuff that came from the studio rather than an unused building that is only famous for what it used to put out. It’s a shame to see it go for historic significance but only die-hard “toon heads” would want to see a building that isn’t even set-up as a studio.

Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on April 5, 2025 in Animation Spotlight and tagged Looney Tunes, Warner Brothers Animation, Warner Brothers Discovery.

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April 4, 2025

My Thoughts On The Second Nintendo Switch

image source: Wikipedia, with color modification to match the official look

Yesterday we did an overview of the promotion for the newest version of the Nintendo Switch, lazily called Switch 2. Yes, they gave their reasons, but it still feels lazy to me even if there’s a huge change from Switch 1. Since then I did manage to watch a few videos to get an idea of what the response is.

I’m going to go over that, but then I want to focus on my own thoughts, things I’d like to see out of the system. The biggest praise seems to come from the size, while the biggest complaint is coming from the prices. Fair enough, but I can’t afford the current Switch or any of the games no matter how cheep they are, so I guess I don’t have a huge dog in this fight.

BW Media Spotlight is a storytelling analysis blog, and I’ve gone over how video games can tell stories. So I want to come at the discussion from that angle. What potential do I see for this as interactive entertainment, and does it really advance anything or it only made so Nintendo can make more console selling money? Well, it’s being reported today that the US’s current plans to tariff what they’re being tariffed in the name of fairness that there may be a delay, causing worries of a price increase. Please note that I don’t want to discuss the tariff situation. This is not the site for that. I have my views and they are just that, MY views. You’re entitled to yours but this is not supposed to be a politics blog, and sociopolitical extremism is already coming up too much lately by force. I understand both sides and I see good and bad points by both sides whether I ultimately agree with them or not. We’ll discuss the prices but that’s not going to be a focus for this site.

Okay? Good? If not I might break out the edit scissors if I have to. I’m all for free speech but we will NOT HAVE A POLITICAL FLAME WAR IN MY COMMENTS, UNDERSTOOD!!!!!!!!!

tHEN LET’S…. I mean then let’s get on with this.

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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on April 4, 2025 in Video Game Spotlight and tagged Computer and Video Games, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, video games.

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April 4, 2025

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Best Comics #2

Best Comics #2

Better Publications, Inc (December, 1939)

Wish I could tell you what this is going in besides the obvious, but with a name as generic as “Best Comics”, you can imagine research is not easy and I don’t have the time to devote to the only issue in Comic Book Plus‘ library. There’s this from Comic Vine:

Published from November 1939 to February 1940 with 4 total issues numbered 1-4.

An early experiment in the size and shape of comic books, unlike the other comics, of which there were few at the time, this one took the size of 68 pages in the form of a panel comic from the news paper.

It was made up of mainly of humor strips, having only one adventure series The Red Mask, which featured the first black mystery man, who while shown as white on the covers was shown colored darker.

This comic also is the reason that DC’s World’s Best Comics had to be re-titled World’s Finest Comics with the second issue, even though they had not published a Best Comics in over a year when WBC came DC thought it better not to fight them for it.

And someday DC/National Comics would become sue happy and kill Fawcett Publishing. Interesting, I thought Lobo (no relation), the black cowboy, was comics’ first black hero but here’s one from the “mystery men” period of superheroes. I’m guessing somebody wanted to fool someone into reading it so whitewashed the character because this was 1939. As stated, Comic Book Plus only has the one issue and it’s mostly comedic comics, the stories I tend to ignore in Golden Age comic reviews because they aren’t very good. Still, I’m curious to see this experiment to see if the size is the only reason it didn’t make it past four issues.

[Read along with me here]

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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on April 4, 2025 in Yesterday's Comics and tagged Better Publications, Golden Age comics, Happy (Golden Age comic), Jigger, Nervy Nerts, Peggy Wow, Pop's Night Out, Red Mask, Silly Willy, The Jamms.

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April 4, 2025

BW’s Daily Video> Marvel Abandoned Women…But Not Through Ratios

Catch more from JesterBell on YouTube

Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on April 4, 2025 in Marvel Spotlight, Movie Spotlight and tagged commentary, JesterBell, Marvel, women in movies, Women Of Marvel.

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April 3, 2025

NIntendo Switch 2: The Switchening

I don’t usually discuss hardware because this is a site dedicated to stories. However, the last few video game related articles I’ve done have been going over terrible games like Suicide Squad: Kill Your Heroes or Assassin’s Creed: We Ruined That Japanese Game You Kept Begging For. I want to bring up happier things, so we’re doing this.

Yes, Nintendo is ready to drop it’s sequel to the Switch, with the uncreative name of Switch 2. Someone won a contest for “can we think of a lamer next console name than Wii U”. Good on them. Come on, guys, gives something more interesting. Switchtastic or something. I don’t care. I know it’s just an upgrade to the original with not a lot of new things…and that’s what interest me.

Nintendo stopped chasing better graphics and went for more interesting gameplay with the original Nintendo Wii, and it forced Sony and Microsoft to suddenly play with technology on their systems at the time. With Switch 2, as you see in the trailer, there are some minor new features, but they seem to be more interested in upping the existing tech rather than adding some new feature, unless you count doubling as a mouse as a new feature. I’m going to grab bits from Nintendo’s four-article “Ask The Developer” feature on their news site because…well, it’s easier for a text site to comment on text than a long video. In it, producer Kouichi Kawamoto, Switch 2 director Takuhiro Dohta, both from the Entertainment Planning & Development department and Tetsuya Sasaki, general manager of the technology development division, go over what can be expected from Switch 2: Electric You All Know This Gag By Now. I’ll link to all four articles, though I’ll only bring up the parts that interest me as a mostly-casual gamer and big fan of storytelling. Otherwise this would read Seduction Of The Innocent levels of analysis. What can the new Switch do that the old one can’t besides take up more room on your TV stand and be slightly harder to take with you?

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