“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Strangers #1

The costumes live up to the name anyway.

The Strangers #1

Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (June, 1993)

“Jumpstart”

WRITER: Steve Englehart

PENCILER: Rick Hoberg

INKER: Tim Burgard

COLOR DESIGN: Paul Mounts

LETTERER: Tim Eldred

EDITOR: Chris Ulm

This is an odd comment to make but I need to make it anyway. These credits were all over the place. There’s a pattern I’m used to when it comes to comic credits: writer, penciler, inker, colorist & letterer sometimes get switched around, and then the editors. This just seemed to be whatever name the responsible party wanted to put up next.

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BW’s Daily Article Link> Why Luke Skywalker ISN’T A Mary Sue/Gary Stu

With news that Rey will do what Luke didn’t and get another movie, fans of classic Star Wars are being forced to hear from the defenders of Disney Star Wars and Kathleen Kennedy that “Luke was totally a Mary Sue so why do you keep calling Rey that?”. Writing for Bleeding Fool, author A.H. Lloyd goes over Luke’s journey in the original trilogy and why Luke is absolutely not a Mary Sue or Gary Stu or whatever you want to call him.

BW Media Spotlight’s Plans In 2024 AD

Today is the last day of 2023 and the last day of my time off. I wish I could go on about how productive it was…but thanks to insomnia and other sleeping issues I ended up sleeping through most of it getting caught up on the sleep I missed at night during the day. I did decide that I really like the theme I’m already using for BW Media Spotlight, and that I can do certain tweaks to my liking, which I may do over the next few days and weeks.

The Clutter Reports returns next week and I want to try do something with The Tronix Tumblr and YouTube because I have those options so I might as well use it. Even X-Twitter is being seen as a potential video platform. For example, Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News contributor who…well, we won’t get into all that drama. Point is he moved his show to TwitterX and I’ve a few other online personas making use of it. I probably won’t but I do want to adjust my feeds so that the official BW feed is just for researching article topics while using my personal feed, with only exists because pre-X Twitter screwed up my official feed for a while, will have more personal interest. Both will still promote my work, because that’s also personal interest.

Here at the Spotlight, the comic order is back to what it was before the Christmas season: Turtles on Monday, Sonic on Wednesday, the remains of my ComiXology library on Thursday, Star Power on Friday, and Blue Beetle on Saturdays. Why yes, “Turtle Tuesday” or “Turtle Thursday” would be more alliterative. Yes, I could move Turtles to Tuesday…in fact I will. So what’s on Monday’s? Well, I did want to work on Malibu’s Ultraverse (using the…legally questionable sites but it’s not like Marvel is using jack anything with it so I kind of don’t care at this point) so why not Malibu Monday? Okay, you talked me into it.

Note for you Ultraverse fans (I know one person encouraged me to explore the Ultraverse when I suggested the possibility–only one but I can’t even get polls with a decent amount of responders): I cannot get Google to show me a simple list of comics by release date, nor any research site I currently have in my bookmarks, nor do I want to spend the rest of my life trying to find one. I have one reading order suggestion list with a few marked “essential” and that’s it. That’s what I’m going by. So if I miss one that’s not in one of the series I’ve opted to continue reading beyond the essentials, whether it’s on the list or not, let me know. I won’t follow any series because I wouldn’t have back in the day. I’m starting with The Strangers #1 and if that’s not the best introduction to the Ultraverse, I’m currently writing this in anger so I don’t care. Hopefully I will when you comment and I’ll have to get caught up next week like I did with the Sonic and Knuckles comics when the Mammoth Mogul story got out of position. That’s all I can do. The internet has proven useless again. {sigh} Okay, moving on.

Also Monday the newest Chapter By Chapter novel will be revealed. I have an article planned about the current state of New Who and what connection I have to it (not officially, mind you), as we’ll resume the Many, MANY Intros of Spider-Man with the 1990s and work to finish season one of the Transformers: Beast Machines writer’s bible before moving to season two. As for what else is coming, I’m at a point where I don’t want to promote something I may not be able to commit to, because that’s a bad habit I want to break. There will be changes as comics end but we’ll cross that when we get to it.

I hope you all have a happy and safe New Year’s. See in you 2024…aka tomorrow! It’s back to work and I don’t have to worry about a hangover.

BW presents Captain Yuletide #7: The Show Must Go On

Wyatt is the tallest elf, but also the most helpful. So it makes sense that he is sent to help a group of kids save their Christmas play. But who broke the theater? Wyatt and Bryce The Green-Nosed Reindeer better find out because “The Show Must Go On”!

Click here, the image above, or go into the BW Comics And Art archives (link in the header) and check out this year’s installment of Captain Yuletide!

Jake & Leon #584> Christmas Compensation

I couldn’t have a Christmas arc without a happy ending.

I’m working to get Captain Yuletide in on time. Once that goes live I’ll take the next week off. I’ll return on January 1st with the next Chapter By Chapter novel, more diving into the Transformers: Beast Machines writer’s guides and many intros of Spider-Man shows, and start going over Malibu’s Ultraverse for as long as I find it interesting. Plus, whatever else is of interest.

During the break I’ll be trying to catch up on a few things. I’m even considering a new theme for the site, as the old one is no longer supported. Maybe even one for The Clutter Reports, but what I really want to do is cut down my distractions so I can start getting into a work rhythm to get all the articles, comics, and videos I want to do. I’ll also have to find some source of income because I can’t rely on my retired father and food stamps anymore. What effect that will have on the website will have to be determined and based on whatever I end up doing. I do have a lot of stuff I want to sell because I have too much of it. Even if I had a job my comic collection, Transformers collection, and a few others are way too large for my living space so I couldn’t buy anything if I had the money because I have no place to put it. So don’t think I’m selling my life away before I need the cash. It’s all stuff I would have gotten rid of anyway; it’s why I have a decluttering site in the first place.

So I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, and a Happy New Year. See in in 2024 and hopefully it will be better than 2023.

BW Christmas Movie Special> Miracle On 34th Street

Just in case this goes down here are a couple more videos about the movie.

Chapter By Chapter> A Christmas Carol’s Final Stave and Final Analysis

Chapter By Chapter (usually) features me reading one chapter of the selected book at a 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 a read-along book club.

By Charles Dickens

Last night was the Ghost Of Christmas yet to come. I’ll link to each of the staves for anyone coming in here before jumping into the final review, since I won’t be doing a Clutter Report book report on this one, and this last chapter is kind of short compared to the others. First, I want to go over the reason I’ve referred to Ebenezer Scrooge by his first name, rather than the more traditional usage of his last name like this book and pretty much every adaptation.

Britannica.com defines “scrooge” as “a selfish and unfriendly person who is not willing to spend or give away money — usually singular”. Of course the name comes from our pal Ebenezer, and if usually in the negative. We live in a world where we’ve misused the names “Chad” and “Karen”, the former positively despite actual people named Chad who are not “Chads”, and the latter negatively despite actual people named Karen who are not “Karens”. The latter is actually insulting, and I know a Karen who is not a “Karen” as the internet uses it and doesn’t deserve that. I used to know a Chad, but I don’t know what he’s like today.

Often forgotten when you call someone a scrooge is that Scrooge’s story is one of redemption, of not being a scrooge. Also remember technically Fen is a Scrooge, being Ebenezer’s sister, and thus her son Fred is at least a Scrooge by blood, probably taking his father’s name but we’re never given it. So they were NEVER scrooges, yet Fen had the name. We even hear from Fen that their unnamed dad has had his own emotional awakening, bringing Ebenezer back home to the family away from the boarding school. So calling someone a scrooge SHOULD mean “yeah, he’s a skinflint who hates celebrations, but there’s some good in him so he could realize what a fool he’s been and reform someday”, rather than focusing on the man he was. A real scrooge then should be the guy who USED to be a Christmas-hating money hoarder but is now a caring person with his wealth and loves Christmas like he used to.

However, just like the narrator isn’t going to change the English language by complaining about dead doornails versus coffin nails, there’s not much I can do and have better things to deal with. Let’s finish the book and then review the work as a whole.

Stave 5: The End Of It

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