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examining the art of storytelling

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August 7, 2023

BW’s Daily Video Set> The History Of Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing On Rainbows

You may have seen this video. YouTube recommended the daylights out of it before I finally watched the darn thing, so I assume it was big for awhile.

Catch more from Fluffle Puff on YouTube

I’m not sure what’s stranger: that the artist’s OC spent too long in the dryer, that she’s in a lesbian relationship with Luna (yes, I know SOME of the characters, though admittedly I don’t know if Luna was ever depicted as gay), that it looks so close to the art style of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic that not hiring her is a mistake, that she dances on Rainbow Dash at one point (I remember watching a few other videos and this OC is a few apples shy of an orchard)…or that Dan from Dan Vs, a totally unrelated show I barely know, makes a cameo and prepares to introduce Pinkie Pie to his happy little bullets and yet the bit somehow works despite keeping Dan in his show’s art style and the other characters in theirs. As for the song, you want to see the original?

That’s Andrew Huang, and in this follow-up made six years later he goes over what minor change led to this silly little ditty and the impact it had on his life.

Catch more from Andrew Huang on YouTube

It’s amazing what connects with an audience. That’s why you really can’t create something to be popular. Make something good and it will find an audience. No demographic chart or marketing gimmick can make up for that. It’s also fascinating how a small change makes a huge difference. You can let that get out of hand and worry yourself to death as a creator but that may be another reason the devil is in the details. A minor change can make something good into something amazing.

Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on August 7, 2023 in Animation Spotlight, Music Spotlight, Streaming Spotlight and tagged Andrew Huang, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing On Rainbows, silly song.

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August 6, 2023

Jake & Leon #567> Hat Get

Sometimes I wonder if Fizzbin is just messing with them.

I’m hoping that title is a lost meme and not just something from an avatar on a forum I used to be part of.

Over at The Clutter Reports this week I updated Comics For Sale section of the site with a list that isn’t 10 miles long. I just made categories and gave them their own subpage. You can check out the listings here, if you’re curious. At some point I’d consider making it a full-on store but I have a lot to learn about setting one up on WordPress before I try.

This week at the Spotlight we continue the Chapter By Chapter review of Batman: Knightfall, the novelization. My missing a comic post this week allowed me to delay the last physical comic review (not counting turtles and hedgehogs in lead roles) but this week should be the last of that and I don’t know what to do with my Fridays after that. Plus whatever else I come up with this week. I have the makings of an interesting discussion on origins rolling around my head at the moment. Have a great week, everyone!

Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on August 6, 2023 in Jake & Leon and tagged comic strip, Jake & Leon, web comic, webcomic.

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August 5, 2023

Saturday Night Showcase> The Original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cartoon

I’m still annoyed that Paramount decided to pull down INTROS to the original series (I should check after this to see if they’re still up) but when am I going to get a chance to highlight the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series?

Yeah, by now you know the characters’ origins but Playmates enters the scenes and sees toys for kids, since adult collecting of action figures really wasn’t a thing back in the 1980s. At least not at today’s level. The show, produced by Fred Wolf Productions, changed almost everything, so technically it’s a bad adaptation of the comics if not for the fact that the personalities, flattened a bit for the audience and format mind you, are still there. Leonardo’s in charge, Donatello makes gadgets, Michelangelo is the fun-loving one, though Raphael’s tempers was toned down to just the snarky one. They opted to make Splinter into Hamato Yoshi rather than his pet so they didn’t have to kill off the human, which is also why fighting over a woman was replaced with fighting for control of the Foot Clan. Interestingly the movie would restores all of those changes, except that Oroku Nagi and Oroku Saki were now the same character and Tang Shen just didn’t want Yoshi to risk fighting him.

Tonight, thanks to Nickelodeon’s official YouTube channel, we get to see the first five episode, originally released as a miniseries. There are some changes to note, and I will after the video embed, but it’s still the original miniseries after the later edits to match the series, like episode title cards. Also, they changed the intro. The miniseries used the same version as the original series, but I guess somebody couldn’t get access to that one so they simply re-recorded it. Enjoy.

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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on August 5, 2023 in Animation Spotlight, Comic Spotlight, Saturday Night Showcase, Television Spotlight and tagged 1980s, Fred Wolf Productions, kids TV, Saturday Night Showcase, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1980s cartoon).

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August 5, 2023

“Yesterday’s Comic> The Blue Beetle #20

Now he’s not even on his own cover. Unless that’s Spunky disguised as a Japanese war propaganda stereotype.

The Blue Beetle #20

Sorry.

The NEW Blue Beetle #20

Holyoke Publishing Co. (April, 1943)

There are two versions up at Comic Book+. I’m using the “alt” version since it appears to be cleaner. Follow along with me here.

I have to wonder if Holyoke was trying to kick Dan Garret off of his own title at this point. Now he’s not even on the cover, which proclaims itself to be the “New” Blue Beetle comic. The Beetle is only in two stories, one in the front and the other buried in other stories. Just end the title and do an anthology not named after one of the characters. You decided to continuing the Fox numbering and use the character.

Frankly, I’m surprised the character lasted long enough for Fox Features to get him back.

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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on August 5, 2023 in Yesterday's Comics and tagged Arabian Knights, Blue Beetle, Dan Garret, Duke De Montray, Flying Squadron, Holyoke Publishing, Sinbad The Sailor.

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August 4, 2023

The Many, MANY Intros Of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Live-Action One

Not that ninjas from space isn’t cool, but it’s not their origin.

And that was before the upcoming movie…wait a minute! I already did this one as part of the My Not-So-Favorite Intros series. So I can move on to…what? Updated information? Showcasing the UK version because that’s how this series works? Really? Aw shell!

Fine. Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation was Saban’s attempt at trying to do something other than Power Rangers…sort of. Power Rangers, VR Troopers, Masked Rider, and the Beetleborgs had their adventures formed from a mix of Japanese and US footage to create a new show. VR Troopers was put into syndication because some adults got upset about the action in the various Power Rangers shows leading to kids getting hurt playing the adventures. Because as we all know no child ever got hurt role playing characters before Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers came out. While this was the reason given for the lightened tone of Masked Rider and the two Beetleborgs shows…nothing really changed on Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, so I’m a bit suspicious.

At any rate, Saban’s next two shows technically kept the Sentai formula without any Japanese footage. Mystic Knights Of Tir Na Nog, who’s intro is so bland it’s not worth any of my intro series, was essentially Power Rangers in a Scottish fantasy realm. Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation already had four Turtles but because Saban was diverse before diverse was shoved down our throats they tossed in a girl Turtle rather than have April or Mona Lisa from the cartoon show up. It was also the first time they stated that the Turtles weren’t related, just in case they wanted to put Venus (original name Mei Pieh Chi, which was too hard for these idiot versions of the boys to say so rather than look up an artist they went with a broken armed statue of a naked woman) into a romance with one of the boys. My money’s on Leonardo, but we aren’t here to talk about how terrible the show was.

Phelous on YouTube already did an episode by episode look at the show or my old Reviewers Unknown colleague The Rowdy Reviewer did an overview if you want to get the jist of why it was crap. Rowdy also did a retrospective on the franchise with a deeper look at the live-action show, and if he can talk about the Next Mutilation twice, I guess I can, too. So…intro!

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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on August 4, 2023 in Ninja Turtles and tagged Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, Saban Entertainment, TV intros.

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August 4, 2023

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Stan Sakai Builds Characters

“Let’s see Kenshin pull this off.”

Stan Sakai Builds Characters

Dark Horse Comics (June, 2015)

This is an anthology series featuring some of Sakai’s work for Dark Horse. It’s the fourth in a series of “Dark Horse Builds Characters” tributes to indie creators’ with numerous great stories under their belts. With five stories, three of which involves his most famous character of rabbit samurai Usagi Yojimbo, I’m just going to speed through these reviews.

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